TOON: True, the people of God, the Body of Christ, the Household of the Father, is the sum total of the Catholic Church. However, in the jurisdiction known as the Anglican Way, the Bishop is the Father in God, the Chief Pastor, the Chief Teacher and the Chief Minister of the people of God. And the Archbishop is the senior bishop in a Province. Thus when the Archbishops of virtually all the Anglican Provinces meet and agree on a line of action and issue a statement explaining it, all faithful Anglicans must take this statement seriously as having strong moral and spiritual force.

INGHAM: So wrote the Bishop of Cork, in his response to the communiqué issued by the 35 chief bishops (or Primates) of the national churches in the Anglican Communion.

TOON: The Bishop of Cork is not known as an exceptionally wise or learned or charismatic person and his views are one set amongst many. But he ought to show greater respect for the combined word of the Archbishops/Presiding Bishops of 35 provinces!

INGHAM: Anglicans should remember this goes back to the very formation of Anglicanism. For a reason one might consider good or bad - he wanted a divorce from Catherine, who could not produce a male heir - Henry the VIII broke from Rome and decreed that he, not the bishops, not the Pope, was the head of the Church of England. "Erastianism!" shouted the Pope's followers - the heresy of subjugating the Church to the State. (One learns a new word every day.)

TOON: Why this curious attack on the Church of England, the mother of all Anglican Churches in the world? In the traditional C of E the House of Commons has been seen as the Meeting of the Laity and, without the agreement of the Commons the C of E cannot make any major changes to its constitution and polity. For centuries the Monarch has been the nominal head, acting always on the advice of the Parliament, Prime Minister and Archbishops. Today the C of E is effectively run by the General Synod to which the Parliament has given wide powers. So it is run by Bishops, priests and laity working together.

INGHAM: And still in that country Elizabeth II heads the established church - not the Archbishop of Canterbury or any group of bishops. (Hence all the fuss about Prince Charles' marriage to a divorcee, since Charles may one day head the Church of England.

TOON: She is the "head" in the sense that she is also head of the State, but it is always the Queen in Parliament, the Queen acting always on the advice on the Parliament and the Prime Minister and the Synod.

INGHAM: As Britain's colonies gained independence, so did the Anglican Churches in each country. But since these seldom were established churches, supreme authority had to go somewhere other than to the monarch or the government.

TOON: Of course most new Provinces, when they separated from the C of E, set up their own Synods......but even in England there were Convocations of Canterbury and York and then Church Congresses leading to the General Synod. The Queen is the titular head, not the effective head, of the C of E for her role is to be the Queen in Parliament and the Queen in Synod, as it were. Modern major decisions - ordination of women, new Prayer Books etc. etc - were all made by the Synod of the C of E!

INGHAM: It did not go back to the bishops! In Canada, the church is run, not by the bishops, but by the General Synod. The bishops are important - but no more important, collectively, than the clergy, or the elected laity. This is Anglicanism's usual pattern.

TOON: Virtually all Provinces, including the C of E, are run by Synods, but in all these the House of Bishops, because Bishops are Fathers in God and Chief Ministers, always has a unique role in leading the way and having a veto on motions from clergy and laity. In most Asian and African provinces, the place of the House of Bishops is greater in reality than in the West because of the great respect given to Fathers in God by the lay people of the Churches.

INGHAM: A lot of other religious groups think we're wrong, especially Roman Catholics. "To this day the lack of a living Church Spiritual Authority...has been to the Anglican Church a constant source of weakness, humiliation, and disorder," wrote the English Catholic James Moyes in the Catholic Encyclopedia around 1910.

TOON: Certainly there is no Anglican Pope or Patriarch, and with each Province being autonomous, yet seeking to be interdependent, there is great difficulty in making decisions as one world-wide Family or one Communion of Churches. Decision making within a Province is reasonably straight forward; but it is difficult for a world-wide fellowship of Provinces to find quick and easy ways to come to one mind! Because this is so, is no argument against the Anglican Way - the Orthodox Churches have a similar problem as a world-wide Family. Problems arise when one or two Provinces act unilaterally with consultation!!!

INGHAM: Well, maybe, Anglicans have their problems (the RC system isn't exactly heaven on earth), but there are many advantages to having a Church where bishops share power, and don't monopolize it.

TOON: Many of the Primates at the Ireland Meeting came with the authority of their local Houses of Bishops and even Synods to speak and act in a given way with respect to the innovations of the North Americans. They did not monopolize power but they came with authority and exercised authority in a responsible way by calling for certain things to happen in North America. While their combined exercise of authority has no legal force as such in North American, it has great moral suasion and power over all humble, right minded Anglicans.

INGHAM: But, as the Bishop of Cork puts it, the Primates' meetings are taking on "a life of their own." Too many media are suggesting this body has kicked the Canadian and American Anglican Churches out of the Anglican Communion. They didn't do that (they can't) but the Primates very, very strongly suggesting that the Canadian and American Churches withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council.

TOON: Certainly the Primates' Meetings have become important as the crisis caused by the innovations in sexual relations have developed. It is easier to get together 38 Primates than 900 Bishops or 75 million laity. Further, after all are they not the senior Fathers in God of the Anglican Family and thus have a most respected teaching and moral role? Many of the Provinces from which the Primates come have declared themselves out of eucharistic communion with the North American Provinces (or parts thereof) and they are not prepared to meet officially with their bishops or representatives until they repent of their sins and immorality.

INGHAM: Just who do these Primates think they are? The Anglican Consultative Council is its own body _ whose formation predates the Primates' regular meetings, by the way. The Anglican Consultative Council should decide itself whether it wants to consult Americans and Canadians.

TOON: The Primates think that they are the senior bishops of their Provinces, and thus the senior Fathers in God, Teachers of the Faith, Guardians of Orthodoxy and the like. And so they are! Certainly the ACC predates the Primates Meeting but this does not mean it has a greater moral and spiritual authority. The ACC is basically what its title states, a place to share, talk, discuss and the like. It is a very mixed body and cannot by its nature have the same spiritual and moral authority as 38 Fathers in God! The ACC can discuss what it wants but it can never speak or make requests with the same moral authority in God's name as can the Primates' Meeting.

INGHAM: And the Canadian and American representatives to the Council should go to the ACC meeting in June and give that body _ the only Anglican "instrument of union" with lay and clergy members - the opportunity itself to welcome fellow Anglicans, or turn them away.

TOON: Before they go the North Americans need to search for clarity on the nature and polity of the Anglican Communion, and what a so-called instrument of unity actually is. The ACC is not fitted, and was never intended to be fitted, to be a place where major doctrinal and moral questions are resolved. It is a talk-shop, a sharing, not a decision making body. However, if the North Americans insist on their rights and attend everything, then we shall see, as we did at the Primates Meeting, no joint Eucharist and the painful reality of broken communion. Better for the North Americans to go, to say their pieces, to answer questions and gracefully retire to consider whether they need to repent of their innovations against God and his holy law.

The Rev'd Dr Peter Toon is Vice President, Editor & Emissary at Large of the Prayer Book Society

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