The Rev. Chuck Collins: Shifting Authority

From The Living Church

07/08/2007

It’s popular in conservative circles to say that our identity is anchored to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Bishop Jeffrey Steenson wrote a forceful apology for a Canterbury magisterium in the Anglican Theological Review (“The Unopened Gift,” Vol. 87), various Windsor bishops’ statements have said as much, and the Windsor Report itself seems to give the archbishop such a place of honor.

But with great respect for Bishop Steenson and the Windsor bishops, just to say something doesn’t make it true, and to say it often doesn’t make it less false. The Archbishop of Canterbury has never been the focal point of unity in the Anglican Communion. Instead, the focus of unity has always been a theology, what the prayer book calls “the substance of the Faith,” of which the archbishop is obligated to uphold. To give Canterbury control over our identity gives him far more power than he was ever meant to have.

According to Ian Douglas (Understanding the Windsor Report, coauthored with Paul Zahl), the four “instruments of unity” described in the Windsor Report were never identified as such before 1987. The Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Singapore in 1987 considered a paper that brought the four together for the first time. Yet, in reading the Windsor Report, one would get the feeling that these four — the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Consultative Council, the primates, and Lambeth Conference — have always been authoritative.

What the Windsor Report does is very subtle, but it should concern every traditional Episcopalian. Windsor shifted the authority of the church from the scriptures and Anglican theology as preserved in its formularies to four modern entities. This makes “the heritage” almost incidental to the hugely expanding role of Canterbury.

This development puts many orthodox bishops on a collision course with biblical Christianity. To put Canterbury on such a pedestal puts the church over the written word. But the Articles of Religion clearly state that the church is the servant of the word (XX), that the councils of the church may and sometimes have erred (XXI), and that the traditions and ceremonies of the church are subordinate to the authority of God’s word (XXXIV). To give Canterbury primary authority (or even the four instruments together) diminishes what Anglicans have historically believed.

What if, for example, an Archbishop of Canterbury were to say that we have outgrown the biblical understanding of marriage, sex and family? Are we obligated to go along? Or, what if Canterbury were to say that Jesus isn’t the only begotten Son of God (Nicene Creed), and that all religions equally lead to God? Is that the final word? The Archbishop of Canterbury is not infallible. By giving our loyalty to an ecclesiastical structure over God and his word is to build a house on sand.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is clearly the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, but his word is only as good as he upholds God’s word, and his authority is only as strong as he upholds the Anglican heritage. I’m a Christian first, then Episcopalian and Anglican. I don’t want to get to the end of my life and ministry and say, as the former Presiding Bishop John Allin said with regret, that I loved the church more than the Lord of the church.

“The church’s one (and only!) foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord,” states the well-known hymn. Although “instruments of unity” is a new idea, and the exaggerated role of Canterbury is novel to Anglicanism, the Windsor Report is still the best solution for healing our Communion. Its benefits far outweigh its shortcomings. It’s really the only way for The Episcopal Church to be readmitted into the wider Anglican Communion.

Although I don’t know him personally, Archbishop Rowan Williams seems like a bright and spiritual man, and I pray for him as the head of our church. But my hope and greatest comfort in the midst of the storm around us is not a report or the titular head of the church, but God who is the same yesterday, today and forever. ❏

The Rev. Chuck Collins is the rector of Christ Church, San Antonio, Texas.

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