In order to help anyone gain clarity as to the Nature of what is called The Anglican Communion of Churches, I offer the following Propositions, as the basis for reflection/discussion.
- The original Church is the Ecclesia Anglicana (so named in the Magna Carta), known in English as The Church of England (which remains the National & Established Church of England) and having the Threefold Ministry.
- Each of the other 37 Churches/Provinces originated either directly or indirectly from the Church of England, from the 17th to the 21st centuries.
- The name “Anglican” originally referred to the ethnic make-up of the Church of England; now it has no racial connotations but refers to a commitment to a specific form of doctrine, liturgy, morality, church-polity and discipline.
- Each member of this “Communion” is a Church/Province within a Nation or within a specific geographical region and is self-governing and autonomous, proclaiming the Gospel within the local culture and language(s).
- The actual “Communion” (Gk, Koinonia, Lt, Communio) does not exist until each Church specifically, voluntarily and prayerfully chooses to be in fellowship with another/others. The “communion” shared by the Anglican churches is a spiritual and sacramental fellowship, rather than an institutional connection defined by some body of internal institutional law.
- Since each Church/Province is self-governing, no other single Church or Province and no group of Churches or Provinces may interfere by direct intervention in its internal government and discipline. What it may do is to offer brotherly advice and if necessary declare that “communion” no longer exists until certain remedial actions are taken.
- What have recently been called “Instruments of Unity” (the See of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates’ Meeting) possess neither authority to intervene within any of the member Churches/Provinces nor the right to declare a Church to be out of the Communion, but they have the duty encourage unity, to offer advice on doctrinal, liturgical, ethical, disciplinary and polity matters and to apply when needed moral suasion and exhortation.
- The Archbishop of Canterbury is not a Patriarch as is the Bishop of Constantinople and he is certainly not a Pope as is the Bishop of Rome. He is the first amongst equals amongst the Bishops of the Anglican Churches and for all kinds of pragmatic reasons he is regarded as “the leader” and “the spokesman” for the whole Anglican Communion. Yet he has no authority in any other Province than that of England (plus any legal dependencies going back to colonial days – e.g. Bermuda).
- The Anglican Communion of Churches is much nearer to the long-term, historic fellowship of [national & regional] Orthodox Churches in terms of Polity and discipline than it is to the Church of Rome; and it may reasonably claim to be following the general polity of the Early Church of the first four centuries, of which the Orthodox system is a modern, developed expression.
- It is the duty of each National Church/Province to reform, renew and keep in good spiritual health its own Household, but it may, as occasion requires, ask for the help of sister Provinces, which ought to come alongside to help.
- Outside the Anglican Communion of national Churches and geographic Provinces there are what may be called “Extra-Mural Anglicans” who exist as small jurisdictions, denominations and groupings. Their presence and identity ought to be taken seriously and ways found to incorporate them into the international Family.
- When a national Church or Province deliberately forsakes its historic, classic and biblical heritage as Anglican, and when that Church has refused to listen to the godly advice and moral suasion of other Churches as well as of the Instruments of Unity, then the way is open for there to be the formation of a new Province in that country/geographic region by local, displaced & dispossessed Anglicans.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
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