The Church of England Newspaper, May 14, 2010 p 7. May 16, 2010
by Georgoe Conger
A battle is looming over the composition of the Anglican Consultative Council’s (ACC) Standing Committee with conservative leaders urging the chairman of the ACC declare the seat of American delegate Dr. Ian Douglas vacant.
The fight over Dr. Douglas’ seat comes in the wake of sharp criticism of the integrity of the ACC’s staff and hostility towards the usurpation of powers by the Standing Committee voiced by Global South Anglican leaders attending last month’s Singapore encounter.
While the fight over Dr. Douglas’ seat may not have the emotional intensity as the consecration on May 15 of Mary Glasspool as Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles, moderates within the Global South leadership tell The Church of England Newspaper the continued malleability of the rules of the Anglican game in favour of the US may well prove too much.
A professor of missiology at the Episcopal Divinity School, a clergy delegate to ACC-14, and deputy from Massachusetts to the Episcopal Church’s General Convention, Dr. Douglas has served on a number of pan-Anglican commissions including the Lambeth 2008 organizing committee. One of the rising stars of the Episcopal Church and widely acknowledged as its most articulate spokesman at ACC-14 in Kingston, the ACC delegates elected the first-time American clergy delegate to an open seat on the Standing Committee at the meeting.
Last December Dr. Douglas was elected Bishop of Connecticut and on April 17 was consecrated by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. The move from priest to bishop, however, has raised questions as to Dr. Douglas’ eligibility to keep his clergy seat at the ACC.
On Feb 19 the Episcopal News Service reported the Episcopal Church had postponed appointing a successor to Bishop Roskam until its June 16-18 meeting. It quoted Executive Council member Rosalie Ballentine as saying the delay in voting would allow the council to consider “all possible names who would be eligible for nomination,” including Dr. Douglas. ENS stated that “Douglas is currently the clerical member of the delegation. In May, he attended the first ACC meeting of his three-meeting term.”
Asked whether he would have to step down from the ACC’s Standing Committee due to his change in status from priest to bishop, Dr. Douglas told CEN he would remain in place.
“Election to the Standing Committee by the ACC is irrespective of orders. Therefore, if I am elected the episcopal ACC member from TEC by the Executive Council in June, then I remain on the Standing Committee,” he said.
However conservatives have pushed for ACC chairman, Bishop James Tengatenga to replace Dr. Douglas, arguing that under the bylaws of the ACC a church cannot have two episcopal delegates. They state that upon his consecration as a bishop, Dr. Douglas ceased to be a clerical member of the ACC.
Under the three tier membership structure currently in place, churches of the largest class, including the Episcopal Church, send a lay, clergy and episcopal delegate to the ACC. The ACC constitution requires the clergy member be either a priest or deacon. While the Episcopal Church will appoint a successor to Bishop Roskam in June, under the ACC’s rules she remains the episcopal delegate until the start of the next ACC meeting. If appointed by the US Executive Council, Dr. Douglas’ term as an episcopal delegate would start at the opening of the next ACC meeting.
On April 14, ACC secretary general Canon Kenneth Kearon told CEN Bishop Douglas would continue to serve on the standing committee.
“With respect to Prof. Ian Douglas’s changed order of ministry, the issue of duration of membership of the Standing Committee was dealt with in Resolution 28 of ACC-4. This states that members hold their position until such time as their successors take their place, or they retire for any other reason,” he wrote.
However, conservative critics of the ACC not that clause 4d of its Constitution states that members lose their seat when they change status: “Bishops and other clerical members shall cease to be members on retirement from ecclesiastical office.”
Article 2f of the ACC bylaws also requires members of the Standing Committee to be members of the ACC. However, they are “subject to earlier termination in the event that such elected member shall for any reason cease to be a member of the Council.”
Asked to explain the contradiction of Resolution 4:28 and the section 2f of the ACC’s bylaws which requires those who lose their seats to give up their standing committee membership, Canon Kearon’s spokesman said the ACC secretary general would seek advice.
In their April 23 communiqué, Anglican leaders attending the Fourth Global South to South Encounter in Singapore chastised the London staff of the ACC and urged Dr. Williams to reform the communion’s failed structures. “There is a need to review the entire Anglican Communion structure,” they said, “especially the Instruments of Communion and the Anglican Communion office.”
Allowing the American church to keep its seat on the Standing Committee, in what they see as a violation of the ACC’s rules, will likely further alienate the churches of the developing world from London, and harden opinions that the Communion’s structures are corrupt, Global South leaders tell CEN.
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