Todd Granger: Who determines the member Churches of the Anglican Communion?

It appears likely that some sort of discipline for The Episcopal Church will either be proposed or determined at the upcoming Primates’ Meeting in Dar Es Salaam, discipline that could take the form either of the expulsion of The Episcopal Church from the Anglican Commuion (which I think unlikely); or the demotion of The Episcopal Church to less than full membership in the Anglican Communion, in which the communion relationships with The Episcopal Church will vary from province to province within the Communion. (See my essay, “On Methodists, ‘associated’ Churches and the Anglican Covenant” for a suggestion of what this might look like.) Given this, the question has arisen, “Who has the authority to determine the member Churches of the Anglican Communion?” Clearly the answer is one or more of the “Instruments of Unity” of the Anglican Communion: the Lambeth Conference, the Primates’ Meeting, the Archbishop of Canterbury - though ++Cantuar is perhaps better understood as a “servant” of unity, and the Anglican Consultative Council, newest of the instruments.

The answer to the question of which instrument of unity is determinative of membership seems largely to depend on the theological and ecclesiastical opinions of the person answering. Theologically conservative Episcopalians and Anglicans, or “reasserters”, have tended to understand either the Lambeth Conference or the Primates’ Meeting as having this authority. Thus, on this view the primates meeting together in February 2007 could determine the discipline to which The Episcopal Church would be subjected, or could at least make a recommendation the Lambeth Conference which will meet in 2008, understanding that the episcopal Conference will take up their recommendation and reject it or act on it. Theologically liberal or revisionist Episcopalians and Anglicans, or “reappraisers”, tend to deny such determinative (or even commendatory) authority to the primates, and some have suggested that the Anglican Consultative Council, by virtue of its more “democratic” nature (it is the only instrument to include in its membership clergy and laity as well as bishops), has the membership-determining authority. the rest