The Archbishop of Canterbury will be granted sweeping new powers under secret proposals to force rebel Anglican churches into line, The Times can disclose. This requires a paper subscription to The Times which I don't have. So, I am including a summary of the article from ekklesia. If anyone has a Times Online subscription please verify the accuracy of the summary.
Church may give new powers to Archbishop -24/10/03The Archbishop of Canterbury may be granted new powers under secret proposals to force rebel Anglican churches into line, reports The Times newspaper.
The planned changes in church law would apparently give Dr Rowan Williams the power to intervene in the affairs of churches outside England for the first time since the Church was established by Henry VIII.
The proposals, which would have to be agreed by the Church’s separate provinces, have already aroused suspicions that they will turn the Archbishop into an Anglican version of the Pope suggests the newspaper.
The powers are proposed in a legal document presented to the 37 Anglican primates who met at Lambeth Palace last week.
At present, the Archbishop of Canterbury has moral authority amongst bishops but no juridical authority.
The new proposals could lead to new powers being granted to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to his fellow primates, through the legal adoption of mutually agreed ius commune, common law, into the canon law of individual Anglican provinces.
The paper emphasises that any new powers would be used only in exceptional circumstances. “There is no hidden aggrandisement policy on the part of the Archbishop and his advisers,” a senior source told the Times. “But the present divisions are acute and need to be addressed urgently.”
The new role will be worked out by the commission Dr Williams agreed to set up last week “to consider his own role in maintaining communion within and between provinces when grave difficulties arise”.
According to the paper presented to the primates, the aim would be to give the Archbishop of Canterbury power to intervene in the internal affairs of another province “for the sake of maintaining communion within the said province and between the said province and the rest of the Anglican Communion”.
The author, a senior canon lawyer, cites the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution which called for a commission to be set up to work out when it would be appropriate for the Archbishop to exercise “an extraordinary ministry of episcope (pastoral oversight), support and reconciliation with regard to the internal affairs of a province other than his own”.
In the paper he writes: “To date, no such commission has been established, and it is possible that this may be one of the reasons why provinces and individual primates may have been tempted to take the law into their own hands.”
Canon John Rees, Joint Registrar of the Province of Canterbury, who has been involved with the new Network of Legal Advisers set up by the Anglican Consultative Council at its meeting in Hong Kong in 2002, said the intention was not to create an Anglican Pope.
“My hunch would be that the Anglican Communion, having such a heavy emphasis on provincial autonomy, would have little or no stomach for that sort of supra-provincial structure.”
That could be an interesting development. I would think that Anglicans world-wide would need to work through the question of whether they wish to change the individual cannon law to adopt this. I can imagine contentious deliberations within the Episcopal Church in the USA over inserting such a change into its cannon law. I wonder whether any other cannons have been pushed for adoption in this global fashion in the communion.
Which leads me to speculate, is this something that would promote schism in and of itself? It sounds possible that, if this account is accurate and this move forward as described, provinces could end up being required to adopt the cannon law or face expulsion from the global communion.
From my layperson's perspective, it seems that this proposal is contrary to Anglican tradition, would take years to implement, might challenge its proponents to consider whether they wish to be overseen and/or reprimanded, and would raise questions about the process used to select the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Rowan Williams, after all, was nominated/appointed (sorry I don't have the precise terminology) by Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth. The Episcopal Church USA had its origins in Revolutionary War days when it seceded from the control of the Church of England.
Posted by: Steve B. | October 24, 2003 at 11:36 AM
I found a direct quote of the first part of the article, more or less confirming the story. I really don't see this going over very well with conservatives (at least the non-anglo-catholic conservatives). Moving away from primus inter pares would be a big deal. What follows is the quote I found:
Church draws up secret plans for Anglican 'Pope'
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
THE ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury will be granted sweeping new powers
under secret proposals to force rebel Anglican churches into line,
The Times can disclose.
The planned changes in church law would give Dr Rowan Williams the
power to intervene in the affairs of churches outside England for the
first time since the Church was established by Henry VIII.
The proposals, which would have to be agreed by the Church's separate
provinces, have already aroused suspicions that they will turn the
Archbishop into an Anglican version of the Pope.
The powers are proposed in a legal document presented to the 37
Anglican primates who met at Lambeth Palace last week to attempt to
resolve the crisis over same-sex blessings in Canada and the election
of a gay bishop in America.
At present, the Archbishop of Canterbury is primus inter pares, first
among equals, of the Anglican primates, with moral authority but no
juridical authority over his fellows.
The new proposals could lead to some juridical authority being
granted to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to his fellow primates,
through the legal adoption of mutually agreed ius commune, common
law, into the canon law of individual Anglican provinces.
The paper emphasises that any new powers would be used only in
exceptional circumstances. "There is no hidden aggrandisement policy
on the part of the Archbishop and his advisers," a senior source
said. "But the present divisions are acute and need to be addressed
urgently...."
Posted by: Rich | October 24, 2003 at 02:07 PM