On June 15, the Executive Council, the governing body between General Conventions, passed Resolution NAC023 which noted that Article V, Section 1 of the Constitution of The Episcopal Church requires each diocese’s constitution to state “an unqualified access to the Constitution and Canons of this Church.”<\/p>\n
“Any amendment to a diocesan constitution that purports in any way to limit or lessen an unqualified accession to the constitution of The Episcopal Church is null and void,” the resolution continued, adding that “the amendments passed to the constitutions of the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Fort Worth, Quincy and San Joaquin, which purport to limit or lessen the unqualified accession to the constitution of The Episcopal Church are accordingly null and void and the constitutions of those dioceses shall be as they were as if such amendments had not been passed.”<\/p>\n
The chancellors of the four dioceses said June 18, in a statement on the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s website, that they “reserve the right not to accede to [the Episcopal Church’s] unbiblical actions.”<\/p>\n
“The Executive Council does not have the authority to make decisions or pass resolutions of this type on behalf of [the Episcopal Church],” their statement said. “Furthermore, the Executive Council does not have the right to interfere in internal diocesan constitutional processes … The Executive Council’s declaration is contrary to the law and to the historic Anglican faith.”<\/p>\n
Via Media USA, an alliance of Episcopal laity and clergy formed in 2004 to offer a counterpoint to efforts to “realign” the Episcopal Church along more conservative lines, said June 18 that it was “pleased that the Executive Council, in its resolution NAC023, has made clear what we have understood for a long time to be the case.”<\/p>\n