Beloved in Christ,
If you ever find yourself trying to locate a golf ball in deep grass, you will be excused for wishing that you could mow the grass to better find the ball. Such is the Anglican Communion with regard to tracking events that potentially can have a huge impact on all of us. Please someone, mow the grass and cut the weeds.
While much of the Anglican world is watching the newest version of the Covenant, and some are voicing some thoughtful and focused concerns, such as former Primate of Southeast Asia, Archbishop Moses Tay, few are watching other important developments. It is in some of these other areas that I fear mischief is afoot, and the one I want to begin to look at this week is something called "The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion." The document can be found at the webpage for the Anglican Communion Legal Advisers Network.
There is a desire among some of the Anglican Communion's leaders to try and bring together a more unified structure, and in this I am generally supportive. The devil, however, often lurks in the details, and as you read the proposed principles of canon law for the Anglican Communion, I hope you see that there are some real problems for many of the parts of the Communion which do not share what is being proposed as a common understanding of canon law. This document, if adopted or incorporated in its present form, will shipwreck real hopes of unity and communion.
If you go to the website given above you can read the Legal Advisers Network's own material about who they are and how they came to be, and you can download the PDF document to read the proposed principles of canon law. In the introduction to the document is Statement 1, which reads in part: "The Network of Anglican Legal Advisers identifies the following as principles of canon law common to the churches of the Anglican Communion." Since the Network of Legal Advisers has already made the determination, if you disagree you already are at a disadvantage, so let's turn to Section VII, Church Property, and scroll down to Principles 80 through 91, which deal with church property, finances, salaries, budgets, etc.
For those Anglicans who are in TEC (The Episcopal Church in the USA) or in the AC-NA (Anglican Church in North America), there are some obvious problems in that the principles appear to support the so-called "Dennis Canon," which asserts that all property held by all local churches is held in trust for the diocese and the national church, and to claim that this is Communion-wide common canon law. Many of us who were in TEC remember when the Dennis Canon was pushed through in the closing minutes of a General Convention without assurance that it had been properly debated, discussed, and voted on in its final form by both houses of the Convention. The relevant portion of the new Communion principles on property ownership is in Principle 80, which presents the assumption that ALL local church property is held in trust for the "church," where the word "church" is used in a vague way. In this and other cases where "church" is used, it is not clear whether the local church, diocesan church, or Provincial Church is meant. Also, the word "law" is used without specifying whether they are referring to civil law or canon law. Since civil law often bears upon how property belonging to churches or religious corporations is dealt with, the distinction in the proposed principles needs to be made in each instance.
In these principles, whether it is with local church worship facilities or with clergy housing, it is clear that the power of the local church body to conduct their own affairs, whether they are a very small church or a church numbering in the thousands, is usurped so that the power and control rests with the diocesan and/or provincial leadership. It appears that the locals only pay for, repair, provide upkeep, and insure the buildings for the benefit of the diocese and province. Principle 82, Clergy residences, subset 2, states that "Responsibility for care and maintenance of a clergy residence is shared by the occupying cleric and the diocese in the manner and to the extent provided by church law." Is this local church law or diocesan church law?
When it comes to money, see Principle 86, The distribution and control of funds, subset 1: "Control over finance in a church belongs primarily to the central church assembly" (my emphasis added). Moving to Principle 91: Clergy stipends, subset 2 and 3: "Stipends may be organized nationally, provincially or at a diocesan level and control over them rests with the appropriate national, provincial or diocesan assembly." The central or diocesan assembly determines the rate of the stipend. This means that the local congregation loses control of the clergy's housing, salary, and rate of salary in favor of folks higher up who know less about the local situation, and whether the priest is doing a great job or a mediocre one.
Although this entire Part VII looks like it was written by TEC Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori and her chancellor, David Booth Beers, and reflects their ideals, this section is so bad that in North America the average conservative, middle-of-the-roaders, and liberal revisionists are all apt to choke at these so-called common principles. Do local congregations or priests want that kind of authority and control pulled away from the local setting and embedded in more distant ecclesial bodies?
If the document is to be truly a representation of the canon law experience and understandings of the Anglican Communion which we hold in common, then the parts that we don't hold in common need to be removed, and those passages reworded to reflect what we do hold in common and, if necessary, footnotes added to reflect where differences occur.
For now, I urge all of my readers, from every sector, to download the PDF document, read it carefully, and begin to make noise requesting changes and clarity in all of the needed places.
Having said that, let me conclude by noting that I am keen on good government in the church, whether local, diocesan or national, and the concept of having a document that attempts to define what Canon Law is common to all of the communion is a good one. This draft just needs critical work, and quickly.
Blessings and peace in Christ Jesus,
The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council
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