During a press conference after the Anglican Communion Network\u2019s two-day council meeting, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables of the Province of the Southern Cone challenged the notion among some Episcopalians that the primates are claiming curial powers for themselves.<\/p>\n
Because Anglicans worldwide are led by locally elected bishops, he said, \u201cCommon sense and biblical concepts would say that the primates are at that highest level of authority, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
The Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth, said the primates\u2019 increased authority is in direct response to Resolution III.6 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference. That resolution said, in part, that the primates\u2019 meeting should \u201cinclude among its responsibilities positive encouragement to mission, intervention in cases of exceptional emergency which are incapable of internal resolution within provinces, and giving of guidelines on the limits of Anglican diversity in submission to the sovereign authority of Holy Scripture and in loyalty to our Anglican tradition and formularies.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n