Is Membership In The Anglican Consultative Council A Prerequisite?

Drell's Descants ^ | 12/19/2006 | Brad Drell

[Huber]

Is Membership In The Anglican Consultative Council A Prerequisite To Being A Member of the Anglican Communion?

Who Decides Who Is In And Who Is Out?

Read the Connstitution of the ACC; I think not. What is interesting is the following:

ACC-8, resolution 30: Meetings of the Primates and the Lan1beth Conference The Secretary General shall be available to serve, as the Archbishop of Canterbury shall require, as staff for meetings of the Primates and Lambeth Conference. The ACC shall not be responsible for the expenses of the Primates’ Meetings or the Lambeth Conference. The Primates’ Meetings and the Lambeth Conference shall be responsible for expenses incurred on their behalf by the Secretary General and his staff.

And this:

10. Amendments to the Constitution

Amendments to this constitution shall be submitted by the council to the constitutional bodies listed under clauses b, c and d of the Schedule of Membership and must be ratified by two-thirds of such bodies provided that no amendment shall be made which cause the council to cease to be a charity at law.

11. Dissolution

If upon the winding-up or dissolution of the council, there remains after the satisfaction of all its debts and liabilities any property whatsoever, the same shall not be paid or distributed among the members of the council, but shall be given or transferred to some other charitable institution or institutions having charitable objects similar to the objects of the council and which shall prohibit the distribution of its or their income and property among its or their members.

So, the ACC is a charity, and its property is not owned by the Anglican Communion or its member churches, and nothing can be done to change that. This is not the governing body of the Anglican Communion, by any means. I ask all this because of the following:

3. Membership

1. The Council shall be constituted with a membership according to the schedule hereto. With the assent of two-thirds of the Primates of the Anglican Communion, the council may alter or add to the schedule. “Primates,” for the purposes of this article, shall mean the principle Archbishop, bishop, or Primates of each of the bodies listed in paragraphs b,c and d of the schedule of membership.

Does the Anglican Consultative Council determine who is a member of the Anglican Communion? I don’t think so. Here is one object of the ACC:

2. Object

The object of the council shall be to advance the Christian religion and in furtherance of that object, but not further or otherwise, the council shall have the following powers:

3. To advise on inter-Anglican, provincial, and diocesan relationships, including the division of provinces, the formation of new provinces and of regional councils, and the problems of extra - provincial dioceses.

To advise on doesn’t mean determine, last I checked. Someone on the HOBD listserv mentioned some time ago that it would take 2/3rds of the Primates to recognize another Province. I think that information came from the ACC constitution, which states that the ACC can’t determine membership in the Communion. Rather, the ACC is a charity which supports the Communion. I believe the Archbishop of Canterbury is the final arbiter of who is in Communion, but he has to hold Communion together:

Those attending the Lambeth Conference are bishops and archbishops of the Anglican Communion, and those in communion with the Anglican Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury invites the participants to the conference. Formal invitations to attend the conference will be sent out towards the end of 2007.

I think it is fair to say that the Primates’ Meeting could, by majority vote, recognize a new North American Province on a majority vote, and there wouldn’t be a whole lot anyone could do about it.

This is just my theory, at this point. Comments, please. One after thought: how complicated a church polity could Anglicans possibly have????

[Huber]

Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this moderately high-volume ping list (typically 3-9 pings/day).
This list is pinged by sionnsar, Huber and newheart.

Resource for Traditional Anglicans: http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com
More Anglican articles here.

Humor: The Anglican Blue (by Huber)

Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15

Main Entry: pri'mate
Etymology: Middle English primat, from Old French, from Medieval Latin primat-, primas archbishop, from Latin, leader, from primus
Date: 13th century
1 often capitalized : a bishop who has precedence in a province, group of provinces, or a nation
2 archaic : one first in authority or rank : LEADER
3 [New Latin Primates, from Latin, plural of primat-, primas] : any of an order (Primates) of mammals comprising humans, apes, monkeys, and related forms (as lemurs and tarsiers)
-pri'mate-ship \-*ship\ noun
--pri-ma'tial \pr*-*m*-sh*l\ adjective