At the January, 2016 meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion, the Primates said The Episcopal Church (TEC) would not be permitted to participate in ecumenical conversations or any decisions on the doctrine or polity of the Anglican Communion. This consequence was declared by the Primates because TEC had made decisions that unilaterally violate the teaching of the Anglican Communion. Therefore, the Primates reasoned, TEC shouldn\u2019t be allowed to represent Anglicans anywhere.<\/p>\n
Less than four months later the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC-16) met in Zambia on April 8-19, and \u201creceived\u201d the report of the Primates. In fact, they ignored it. The Episcopal Church participated in every vote on every resolution that came before ACC-16, including every matter relating to the doctrine and polity of the Anglican Communion. You can read the facts in detail here<\/a>. A spokesperson on behalf of Episcopal Church Communications reported that the ACC deliberately refused to implement the recommendations of the Primates. Even the delegates from TEC to ACC-16 publicly refuted Archbishop Welby\u2019s claim<\/a><\/u> that ACC-16 had honored the decision of the January 2016 Primates meeting and admitted to doing whatever they pleased during the meeting!<\/p>\n The refusal by the Anglican Consultative Council to implement the recommendations of the January 2016 Primates meeting is prima facie evidence that the Instruments of Communion are at odds with each other \u2013 broken systemically, and unable to reach the \u201cconciliar consensus\u201d that has characterized Anglican decision making at every other level of Anglican Churches other than this global, Communion level of governance. In fact, the Anglican Consultative Council is a major part of the problem, and not the solution<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n The Anglican way of decision making is conciliar<\/em>, and finds it roots all the way back to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. Yes, in conciliar decision making every voice in the church must be heard \u2013 not only Bishops and clergy, but laity, male and female, theologians and more. But the place for this to happen is in a Synod <\/em>where all voices come together in the decision making, and where Bishops exercise a unique role in guarding the faith and order, doctrine and discipline of the Church.<\/p>\n The Anglican Consultative Council is NOT such a Synod. <\/em><\/strong>According to its own Constitution[1]<\/a>, the Anglican Consultative Council has power only to assist<\/u><\/em> Primates and the Lambeth Conference of Bishops \u201cas and when required to do so<\/em>.\u201d (Art. 5.12) That is not the language of a Synod. It is the language of a subordinate and advisory body that serves the bishops rather than contradicting and usurping their authority. This becomes even clearer in the language of Article 5 where the ACC is referred to multiple times as an \u201cadvisory body\u201d only: with power \u201cto advise<\/em> on inter-Anglican, Provincial and Diocesan relationships\u201d (Art. 5.3 at page 4), power \u201cto advise <\/em>on matters arising out of national or regional Church union negotiations,\u201d (Art. 5.8, at page 5) and power \u201cto advise <\/em>on problems of inter-Anglican communication.\u201d (Art. 5.9, at page 5). The powers enumerated to the ACC in the rest of Article 5 are what we would expect for the Board of Trustees of a charitable organization\u2014in language that facilitates the exercise of their fiduciary duties.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the rub: The Anglican Communion is more than a charitable organization under the UK Charities Act. It is a Church \u2013 led by Bishops who have an ancient, conciliar responsibility to guard the doctrine, discipline and order of the Churches they lead, and Primates to guard the faith and Godly order in the relationships among those Churches. This authority is recognized not only in the Resolutions of the Lambeth Conference but also in The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion. <\/em>One hardly knows how to characterize the repudiation of the Primates gathering by the ACC \u2013 arrogance, rebellion or legal fiction, it\u2019s all the same.<\/p>\n