Archive for the 'Articles' Category
Written by: Mark McCall & Philip Turner
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
The Anglican Communion News Service has posted a notice from the Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) stating that he has written Bishop Tito Zavala who represents the Province of the Southern Cone on the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO). In his letter the Secretary General withdrew Bishop Zavala’s membership in that body, but asked him to continue on as a consultant. The problematic nature of the Secretary General’s action has forced us to ask (a) what constitutes a cross border intervention, (b) were cross border interventions ever clearly proscribed by the Instruments of Communion, and (c) are the various moratoria of the same type and weight? These questions have led us into a morass of uncertainty, and we have come to the conclusion that our own uncertainties simply mirror those present within the Communion as a whole. The following essay is an attempt to unravel the confusions the Secretary General’s letter serves to expose and to suggest ways in which these confusions can be clarified. We have undertaken this task because we believe that if the confusion remains, the Anglican Communion will break into pieces.
As indicated, we begin with the Secretary General’s letter. He writes that he has taken action because the Southern Cone, though requested to do so, has failed to give an explanation of the pastoral relation it has established with certain dioceses and parishes in North America. This request was made presumably because the action of the Province of the Southern Cone was thought to be an instance of cross border intervention first mentioned in the Windsor Report. In response, the Archbishop of the Southern Cone has asserted that he has spoken with both the Secretary General and the Archbishop of Canterbury about this matter, and that the province plans to discuss the subject in upcoming meetings
read more...
November 03 2010 | Articles
Written by: Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
When the turmoil surrounding Gene Robinson’s consent and consecration arose in 2003, everyone knew that the Anglican Communion was in for some rough times. But even more pessimistic observers believed that these times would be relatively limited, and that somehow the Communion would muddle towards some stabilizing resolution. Few could have imagined how quickly and how completely the organizations that held the Communion together would fragment and crumble. Yet this is where we have arrived: a seemingly single incident in one small corner of the global church’s reach has managed to unravel centuries of common bonds and shared witness to Christ.
At this point, all the so-called Instruments of the Unity for the Anglican Communion are broken, some, it seems to me, beyond any hope of repair. What can be done about this? The four Instruments – the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) and the Primates’ Meeting (in order of their founding) – have each, in different ways and together, been key means by which Anglicans around the world, drawn from their various migrational and missionary origins, have grown into a vital communion of churches. And this Communion has been characterized by elements unique, admired, and even desired still by many non-Anglican Christians. With the demise of the Instruments of Unity, the question of the Anglican Communion’s survival and vocation is necessarily raised.
read more...
October 05 2010 | Articles
Written by: Mr. Mark McCall
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
It has become commonplace for those supporting the current majority in The Episcopal Church to claim that a bishop’s ordination vow, particularly what is called the “Declaration of Conformity,” is a vow to accept the majority’s interpretation of TEC’s polity that would grant unfettered supremacy to General Convention’s actions. For example, Fr. Mark Harris made this argument when criticizing proposed resolutions in the diocese of South Carolina:
Now, lets see: The Constitution of The Episcopal Church says this: I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation; and I do solemnly engage to conform to the Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship of the Episcopal Church.” (Article VIII of TEC Constitution)
read more...
September 28 2010 | Articles
Written by: C. Alan Runyan and Mark McCall
Sunday, September 12th, 2010
On July 1, 2011 complex, far reaching and polity changing revisions to the disciplinary canon (Title IV) of The Episcopal Church (“TEC”) become effective. The revisions are a product of a multi-year process begun in 2000 whose stated purpose is to change Title IV’s “overly militaristic and rigid application.” The revisions are intended to provide a speedier disciplinary process based on a “reconciliation model”. Commenting on the Task Force’s progress in February 2008, the Chairman stated the revisions place “an emphasis on pastoral resolution” while moving away from a criminal-justice model. “Title IV Resources” made available for Diocesan use on the General Convention website state that the changes “emphasize pastoral care for all” and “reflect more clearly our theology.”
The revisions certainly will change the character of the disciplinary process making the disciplinary landscape appear less formal, speedier and more pastoral. However, these goals mask other very unsettling realities of the new disciplinary process, more suggestive of another pastoral analogy: a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
read more...
September 12 2010 | Articles
Written by: The Anglican Communion Institute, Inc.
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
As we have noted several times in recent months, the final text of the Anglican Covenant assigns important tasks defined in Section 4 to a committee designated the “Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion.” There is currently no committee in the Anglican Communion bearing that title or capable of performing those tasks. The ACC standing committee was briefly referred to by the Section 4 title, but that name was not given it by the ACC. In any case in July 2010 the standing committee of the new company intended to replace the former ACC, noting objections to the title, agreed that it would be known simply as the standing committee.
Moreover, the ACC committee cannot fulfill the role defined by the Covenant, which makes the Section 4 committee “responsible to” both the Primates’ Meeting and the ACC, in the case of the latter as it was defined by its former constitution. Under the ACC’s new corporate arrangement, the members of its standing committee now comprise the entire membership and management of the ACC for legal purposes. Nor is there any meaningful way in which that committee could be said to be responsible to the Primates’ Meeting as contemplated by the Covenant.
read more...
August 22 2010 | Articles
Written by: The Anglican Communion Institute, Inc.
Friday, August 20th, 2010
Although we have written before of our concerns over the substance of the new Articles of Association of the Anglican Consultative Council, until now we have said little about our concerns over the procedures followed by the Anglican Communion Office in managing the development of these Articles. Others voiced complaints and we remained hopeful that the ACO would respond to these complaints with transparency and by providing satisfactory answers. This has not happened.
We are dismayed that the Communion Office is either unable or unwilling to provide even the most basic information to those who have raised serious concerns: what information was provided to the provinces; when was it provided; and what was their response. An amendment of the constitution is a significant action by an organization, especially one subject to legal duties. Maintaining this information is the most basic level of diligence required of an organization’s secretariat. The lack of transparency and public accountability throughout this process is one of the most regrettable episodes of Communion life in recent years.
read more...
August 20 2010 | Articles
Written by: The Anglican Communion Institute, Inc.
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
Yesterday the Anglican Communion News Service published an interview with Canon John Rees, legal advisor to the Anglican Consultative Council, that responded in part to questions we previously raised in our paper, “Contrasting Futures for the Anglican Communion: A Transformed ACC and the Anglican Covenant.” We are grateful to the Anglican Communion Office, Canon Rees and the ACNS for responding directly on this matter of wide interest and for their renewed commitment to transparency in the process of structural reform now underway in the Communion. We continue to believe that these changes raise significant questions, that many of these questions remain unanswered, and that these questions should be considered throughout the Anglican Communion. We emphasize that the questions we raise below are not posed to Canon Rees alone, but are addressed more broadly to all those interested in the future of the Communion.
read more...
August 12 2010 | Articles
Written by: Rev. Dr. Philip Turner
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
The meeting of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council (hereafter the Standing Committee) has just finished its deliberations. It was reported in The Standing Committee Daily Bulletin that Dato’ Stanley Isaacs had proposed, “The Episcopal Church (hereafter TEC) be separated from the Communion.” This proposal was rejected because it was believed, “Separation would inhibit dialogue on this and other issues among Communion Provinces.”
This brief notice is yet another signal that the Anglican Communion stands in unparalleled danger. The way in which TEC does business poses a serious threat to the evangelical and catholic identity of our Communion. I write to point out the nature of that threat and to call upon those responsible for its future health to take vigorous steps to halt an increasingly obvious attempt by TEC to remake the Anglican Communion over in its own image.
read more...
August 03 2010 | Articles
Written by: The Anglican Communion Institute, Inc.
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
The crises in the Anglican Communion in recent years have revealed two distinct problems confronting the Communion, one theological and one structural. The two halves of faith and order. The theological problem is whether the Communion has theological coherence on major questions of faith and practice. Slowly over the last decade and a half an affirmative answer to this question has been evolving. In particular, on the presenting crisis of human sexuality the Communion does have a common mind that has been expressed repeatedly by all four Instruments. The extent to which this has happened is reflected in the report of the Joint Standing Committee in late 2007 after the meeting of TEC’s House of Bishops in New Orleans:
The Communion seems to be converging around a position which says that while it is inappropriate to proceed to public Rites of Blessing of same-sex unions and to the consecration of bishops who are living in sexual relationships outside of Christian marriage, we need to take seriously our ministry to gay and lesbian people inside the Church and the ending of discrimination, persecution and violence against them. Here, The Episcopal Church and the Instruments of Communion speak with one voice.
TEC’s Presiding Bishop concurred in that report, but she has since served as the chief consecrator of Mary Glasspool and TEC’s General Convention has authorized the development of liturgies for public rites of blessing.
read more...
July 28 2010 | Articles
Written by: The Anglican Communion Institute, Inc.
Sunday, July 4th, 2010
The Reverend Canon Professor Christopher Seitz The Reverend Dr. Philip Turner The Reverend Dr. Ephraim Radner Mark McCall, Esq. We have written often about the Anglican Consultative Council and its Standing Committee over the last year. After the chaotic session in Jamaica in May 2009 we noted that the ACC had not followed its own [...]
read more...
July 04 2010 | Articles
« Prev - Next »