The next Anglican Consultative Council will debate a recommendation to increase the number of primates on the standing committee to eight, to equal ACC representatives. Some ACC members are wary of increasing the role of the primates.

Skirmishes over details are relatively minor compared to constitutional issues now beginning to emerge.

Ahead of the meeting the Anglican Communion Office announced that the old, unincorporated constitution had been replaced by new ACC articles of association following registration with the U.K. Charity Commission.

This change poses a raft of new questions. Is it right for a key instrument of the Anglican Communion to be enshrined in U.K. law in this way? Are there latent conflicts with the proposed Anglican Covenant, the role of the Lambeth Conference and the Primates’ Meeting? Does the new arrangement partly disenfranchise ordinary ACC members?

As he has done before, Archbishop Williams questioned whether the Communion’s structures are adequate for the 21st century.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • Anglican Consultative Council • Episcopal Church (TEC) • * Theology • Ecclesiology

1. Robert Lundy wrote: I find it ironic that some are boasting of transparency from a body that just held a 5 day CLOSED-DOOR meeting. July 29, 9:55 am | [comment link]

2. driver8 wrote: FWIW I note that the ACC passed a resolution in December 2009 requesting the presence of non-Primatial Standing Committee members at the Primates committee. It’s tit for tat with the TEC dominated ACC and ACO apparently setting themselves against the Primates. The very bodies tasked with representing the unity of the Communion visibly reflect it’s brokenness and failure. July 29, 3:29 pm | [comment link]

3. dwstroudmd+ wrote: Scrutiny has a meaning.  It is not applicable here.  Newspeak. July 29, 10:28 pm | [comment link]

4. New Reformation Advocate wrote: Robert (#1), Right, brother.  And this whole new constitutional set up was likewise cooked up basically in a smoke-filled back room, out of sight… driver8 (#2), So it appears.  I seem to recall something about dysfunctional families often have problems with maintaining healthy boundaries… Alas, the so-called Instruments of Communion and Unity have been perverted and corrupted so that now they’ve become Instruments of Chaos and Disunity.  Ichabod. David Handy+ July 30, 3:40 pm | [comment link]

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