Dioceses' Appeal for APO Modified
10/27/2006

The dioceses which appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury for alternate primatial oversight (APO) last summer have modified their petition and no longer seek an “alternative primate” to exercise metropolitan oversight. Instead they have asked Archbishop Rowan Williams for a “commissary” from Canterbury. The Living Church has learned that Archbishop Williams recently informed the petitioning bishops the issue will be discussed during the meeting of Anglican primates Feb. 14-19 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

“Commissary” or Commissarius Apostolicus is an ecclesial term for someone appointed to act on behalf of a bishop as an episcopal agent in the bishop’s absence. Commissaries were appointed by the Bishop of London for the 13 colonies to oversee Church of England parishes until the American Revolution. the rest