PARTY LINE

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

Speaking of messages, my gracious lord of Canterbury just received another one:

The Bishop in Iran has quit the Anglican Communion’s ‘Standing Committee’.

Bishop Azad Marshall’s decision to stand down will come as a blow to the Archbishop of Canterbury who has sought to vest an unprecedented degree of authority in the new entity—formed by the merger of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Standing Committee of the Primates Meeting.

The vote of ‘no confidence’ by yet another leader of the Global South group of Anglican churches serves to isolate Dr. Williams from the conservative and liberal wings of the Communion—diminishing his authority as the political centre collapses from under him.

To say the least. Along with that comes word that the Episcopalians are once again deciding that Anglican rules don’t apply to them.

On June 18 the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church elected Bishop Ian Douglas of Connecticut to succeed Bishop Catherine Roskam as its episcopal representative to the ACC. Bishop Douglas had been a clergy representative from the Episcopal Church to the ACC and at last year’s ACC meeting in Kingston Jamaica was elected to the Standing Committee.

Asked by CEN in March whether he would continue as a member of the ACSC following his April 17 consecration to the episcopate, Bishop Douglas said “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.”

However, the Anglican Communion Institute (ACI) has objected to Bishop Douglas’ continuing membership on the ACSC, noting it violates the language of the ACC constitution and bylaws.

In a paper released last week, the ACI argued that Bishop Douglas gave up his clergy seat on the ACC when he was consecrated a bishop. His “membership on the ACC ended on April 17 when he retired from his presbyterial office and was ‘translated’ to a new order” of ministry, they said.

The ACI further stated that the ACC bylaws require a member of the Standing Committee to be a member of the ACC, and due to his consecration and subsequent loss of clergy seat on the ACC he “also ceased to be a member of the ACC standing committee at that moment,” under Article 2(f) of the bylaws.

Even assuming that Bishop Douglas could be re-appointed to the Standing Committee after he changed his clergy seat for an episcopal seat, the ACC bylaws require a replacement member be drawn from the “same order” of ministry as his predecessor. Bishop Douglas could not, under the ACC bylaws the ACI said, replace the Rev. Douglas.

Mouneer Anis has stepped down from it, Henry Orombi has apparently decided that participation in it is a waste of his time and now Azad Marshall has quit. So from the conservative or roughly-conservative end of things, the credibility of the Anglican Communion Standing Committee is pretty much shot to pieces.

Meaning what? Who knows? One more pillar of the Anglican Communion is shown to be either a tool of the Americans or a pointless irrelevance. Either way, I don’t like the Communion’s long-term chances.