The Episcopal Church and the New Episcopal Church

In 2013 an “Ecclesiology Committee of the House of Bishops” produced something they called “A Primer on the Government of the Episcopal Church and its underlying theology.” We have evaluated the document in detail at the Anglican Communion Institute website. Recently the document appeared again, this time at a House of Bishops meeting in North Carolina (See the weblog of Bishop Dan Martins).What is the purpose of trying to secure a place for this understanding of TEC’s polity at this point in time?

Leaving aside a possible pragmatic purpose (to aid in litigation), one thing that emerges in the course of the sixteen-page discussion is an assertion of the “supreme authority” of General Convention (p. 9). Yet one might rightly ask in just what sense this might be so, given the presence within the Episcopal Church of a Constitution, which itself defines the role of General Convention, Bishops, the Book of Common Prayer, and other obvious touchstones of authority, and which cannot be deviated from by canon or General Convention action. Indeed, the Primer itself adverts to this when it speaks of General Convention’s conduct being subject to “parameters” (p. 9).

The Primer opines that the “supreme authority” of General Convention is to be contrasted with a “state’s rights” model. Yet the obvious point is that when individual Bishops or Dioceses appeal to authority, they do so with reference to the Constitution of TEC. There is nothing “state’s rights” about this appeal but rather it is a solemn assertion of the authority of the TEC Constitution itself. Individual diocesan constitutions and canons make explicit reference to the TEC Constitution and solemnly declare it to be the authority to which the dioceses agree to subject their own diocesan affairs. Keep reading

While the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America has so far not issued a document interpreting the polity of the ACNA, it is quite evident from its actions that the College of Bishops claims for itself supreme authority in that denomination and does not regard its conduct as subject to any discernible "parameters" - the Scriptures, the Anglican formularies (including the two Books of Homilies), and the denomination's constitution and canons. The position that it has adopted is decidedly un-Anglican and is close if not entirely identical to the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic position. It exemplifies what former ACNA Archbishop Robert Duncan described as "a new settlement" and "regression." This position rejects the Biblical and Protestant stance of authentic historic Anglicanism, its Reformed and Evangelical doctrine, and its inclusion of the laity in the governance of the Church at the national and provincial levels, as historically represented by the English monarch and parliament, and in recent years by General Synod or its equivalent. It represents a regression to the Church of the early High Middle Ages, well before the Reformation, in doctrine, practice, and governance . Whatever the ACNA may chose to call itself, it is NOT an Anglican Church!