C of E told it cannot cede power to Primates

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=49400

[Church Times] 4 Jan 2008--Stephen Slack, head of the legal office and legal adviser to the General Synod, said that it would be unlawful for the Synod to delegate its decision-making power to the Primates. It “could not sign up to a Covenant which purported to give the Primates of the Communion the ability to give ‘direction’ about the course of action the C of E should take”. A new form of words that removes the word “direction” is suggested.

The C of E text also includes a new subsection that addresses intervention in the affairs of Anglican churches — absent from the original draft. In the suggested wording, signatories commit themselves “to [refraining] from intervening in the life of other Anglican Churches (sc. provinces) except in extraordinary circumstances where such intervention has been specifically authorised by the relevant Instruments of Communion.”