The Revd Dr Colin Craston, served 15 years on the Anglican Consultative Council including six years as Chair. He was in parish ministry in the Church of England for 50 years and in retirement lives near Bolton.
While the Anglican Communion as a whole is a considerable way from agreement as to whether the consecration of women to the episcopate is in accord with God's will, there is substantial agreement on how the Communion should deal with the development. In essence the attitude to the development of women bishops has been similar to that towards women priests, with the added recognition that a woman bishop being appointed as a focus of unity could present problems in a diocese and in episcopal collegiality.
The 1968 Lambeth Conference, (Resolutions 34 to 38), having affirmed that theological arguments for and against women priests are inconclusive, requested every member Church to give careful study to the question and report findings to the Anglican Consultative Council, which met for the first time in 1971. It also requested that before any Church finally decided to priest women the advice (the word is significant) of the ACC should be sought. The ACC having received such a request from the Council of the Church of South-East Asia on behalf of the Bishop of Hong Kong agreed by a narrow majority that the action would be acceptable to the ACC which would exercise its good offices to encourage all Churches to continue in communion with the diocese concerned (Resolution 28).
At the next meeting of the ACC in 1973, by an overwhelming majority it was agreed that ordaining women priests should not cause any break in communion in the Anglican family, and that while ecumenical repercussions should be taken into account, they should not be decisive, (54 in favour, 1 against). It is recognised here that any Church tradition in the world-wide fellowship of Churches has authority to do whatever it is convinced the Universal Church should do, after consultation, without being held-up interminably.
The 1978 Lambeth Conference in a full and detailed resolution confirmed the attitude taken at the ACC with the strong recommendation to preserve communion. The voting was 316 to 37. The Conference went on to discuss the consecration of women to the episcopate and recommended that no decision should be taken to do so "without consultation with the episcopate through the primates and overwhelming support in any member Church and in the diocese concerned".
Clearly the introduction of women into the priesthood and possibly the episcopate profoundly affected the unity of the Anglican Communion, and in particular its exercise of authority.
At the 1978 Lambeth Conference a "Primates' Committee", set up to help the Archbishop of Canterbury and advise him, led the Conference to agree to support subsequent meetings of the Primates, though their purpose was not wholly clear. In the early years of the Primates' Meeting its part in Communion affairs was undefined. At its 1979 meeting the minutes indicate that decisions which have legal authority are made by the synods of the Provinces. The Primates' Meeting could not be, and was not desired as, a higher synod. It was a clearing house for ideas and experiences through free expression, the fruits of which they might convey to their Churches.
As happens with committees, the Primates' Meeting came to define its role more clearly, and meet more frequently. Primates, as with bishops generally, are not necessarily theologians for exploration of divine issues. It was a wise step, therefore, for them to set up a commission to study the exercise of authority in the Communion. This commission, chaired by Archbishop Eames, produced the report, "Unity and Diversity within the Communion: A way forward". More frequent meetings and enhancement of the role of the Primates' Meeting has tended to overshadow the role of the ACC, which, mainly for financial reasons, cannot meet more frequently than every three years. The recent ACC decision to have the Primates meet with them could overplay the episcopal role in exercise of authority.
The Eames report described the way authority is experienced at Communion level as a power of persuasion exercised through four instruments, the Lambeth Conference, the Primates' Meeting, the ACC, together with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The long-standing rejection of any central, juridical governing body, over-riding the autonomy of member Churches, was maintained, as it has been ever since. As a result of reaction from the ACC in 1987 the report was amended to emphasise that "the authority of a bishop is two-fold; that which is inherent in the office of a bishop (acting in the apostolic tradition as a personal sign of the Church's continuity and unity and on behalf of the people of God within the body of Christ) and that which is expressed by the bishop in council". Member Churches were asked to react to the report, and a paper presented to the 1988 Lambeth Conference, entitled "Instruments of Communion and Decision-Making", received widespread support.
As the 1988 Lambeth Conference, with ECUSA likely to appoint a woman bishop, it was resolved "That each Province respect the decision and attitudes of other Provinces in the ordination or consecration of women in the episcopate, without such respect necessarily indicating acceptance of the principles involved, maintaining the highest possible degree of communion with the Provinces that differ". Recognising the hurt that could be caused on both sides, pastoral provision would be required (423 in favour, 28 against, 19 abstentions). It was also decided that the Archbishop, in consultation with the Primates, set up a commission to help a process of reception and offer guidelines.
A commission chaired by Archbishop Eames on "Communion and Women in the Episcopate" was set up which took up study previously done by a working party led by Archbishop Grindrod of Australia. The commission's guidelines offered ways of maintaining the highest degree of communion possible in the face of doctrinal disagreement and diversity of practice. Consequent upon the appointment of the first woman bishop in ECUSA the provision of an episcopal visitor for congregations objecting to women bishops was suggested It is worth noting the emphasis in the 1988 resolution on maintaining the highest possible degree of communion, and in contrast the unilateral attitude of ECUSA in the consecration of Gene Robinson.
The Commission's report was approved at the 1998 Lambeth Conference (III.4), recognising the ongoing, open process of reception in the Communion. Further reflection on the meaning and nature of communion was undertaken at a meeting of church leaders and theologians at Virginia Seminary in the USA. Its title was "Belonging Together". That report too was endorsed at Lambeth 1998 (III.8). More recently, a further commission led by Archbishop Eames has produced the Windsor Report. This context is very different from that of women in the episcopate, being occasioned by the even more divisive issue of reaction to homosexual practices, particularly involving clergy and bishops. In this case ECUSA had been specifically warned by the Primates' Meeting in Lambeth in October 2003 that proceeding with the consecration of Gene Robinson would 'tear the fabric of the communion at its deepest level'. So the process in the Anglican Communion of the consecration of women to the episcopate and of men to the episcopate who are in sexual relationships outside of marriage, are not similar.
Some reflection. The New Testament basis of communion in the Church needs emphasis. St. Paul gives a very clear basis in Ephesians 4. He appeals for humble, gentle, patient love and mutual tolerance. His readers are to do their best to preserve the unity the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds them together. And the basis for his appeal is one body, one Spirit, one hope, for "there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism". One Lord is clear, the Lord Jesus Christ. One faith must be trust in the incarnate, crucified and risen Son of God - there was no official creed or doctrinal confession at the time. One baptism is clear. Disagreements and divisions on beliefs and behaviour existed in apostolic times but the determination to maintain unity in the body must reflect the unity of the Trinity. Apostolic authority was an essential factor, but its exercise was in conjunction with congregational participation in local churches. In dealing with disorders and wrongs in the Corinthian church Paul expected the members with him to exercise discipline. Some of those members could have been slaves. There is good reason here to support the Anglican pattern pf being episcopally led and synodically governed. This must remain part of its inheritance for the benefit of the universal Church. Its tradition here is a result of a marriage of principle and pragmatism stemming from the break with Rome in the 16th century.
These posts are by guest authors for Fulcrum