Commission Invites Submissions

The Lambeth Commission, charged with making a report in September regarding the current tensions within the Anglican Communion, is inviting submissions of evidence;

...Submissions of evidence may be forwarded unsolicited for the consideration of the Commission, provided that the following criteria are met:

Submissions must relate strictly to the terms of reference of the Commission (key questions are set out below), and be sent in electronic format to the email address of the Commission’s Secretary set out below.
Submissions should be in word processed format, and no longer than one side of an A4 sheet of paper or the equivalent.
The Commission may decide to request clarification or development as it feels appropriate. All submissions may be published on the Commission web site at the direction of the Commission’s Chair, Archbishop Robin Eames.

The Commission should be grateful if members of the Anglican Communion, and our ecumenical partners, will hold the Commission’s work in their prayers, together with the life of the Anglican Communion.

Information on the Commission and its ongoing work may be found on the web site: (www.anglicancommunion.org/ecumenical/commissions/primates/index.cfm), or by contacting the Secretary to the Commission, the Revd Canon Gregory Cameron, on commission.secretary@anglicancommunion.org.

Media enquiries should be addressed to the Press Officer of the Archbishop of Armagh:

The Revd Brian Parker
Tel: +44 (0) 28 90 232909
Mobile: +44 (0) 7775 927807
Email: press@ireland.anglican.org

The Commission’s Key Questions:

Taking into account work on issues of communion carried out by Lambeth Conferences 1988 and 1998, and the views of the Primates Meetings since 2000:

1. What are (a) the legal and (b) the theological implications flowing from ECUSA decision to appoint a priest in a committed same sex relationship as one of its bishops? (See LC 1998 Res. I.10)

2. What are (a) the legal and (b) the theological implications of the decision of the diocese of New Westminster to authorise services for use in connection with same sex unions?

3. What are the canonical understandings of (a) communion, (b) impaired communion and (c) broken communion? (What is autonomy and how is it related to communion?)

4. How (do and) may provinces relate to one another in situations where the ecclesiastical authorities of one province feel unable to maintain the fullness of communion with another part of the Anglican Communion?

5. What practical solutions might there be to maintain the highest degree of communion that may be possible, in the circumstances resulting from these two decisions, within the individual churches involved? (eg [alternative] episcopal oversight when full communion is threatened)

6. What practical solutions might there be to maintain the highest degree of communion that may be possible, in the circumstances resulting from these two decisions, as between the churches of the Anglican Communion? (eg [alternative] episcopal oversight when full communion is threatened)

7. Under (a) what circumstances, (b) what conditions, and (c) by what means, might it be appropriate for the Archbishop of Canterbury to exercise an extraordinary ministry of pastoral oversight, support and reconciliation with regard to the internal affairs of a province to maintain communion between Canterbury and that province? (see LC 1998, Res. IV.13)

8. Under (a) what circumstances, (b) what conditions, and (c) by what means, might it be appropriate for the Archbishop of Canterbury to exercise an extraordinary ministry of pastoral oversight, support and reconciliation with regard to the internal affairs of a province to maintain communion between that province and the rest of the Anglican Communion? (see LC Res. IV.13)

In the few months I've been aware of the blogosphere, I've had the privilege of stumbling across numerous excellent Anglican writers. I encourage you to offer a submission to the Lambeth Commission.

J.