The Archbishop of Canterbury’s forthcoming "panel of reference" will not have the power to compel bishops to offer delegated episcopal pastoral oversight, a spokesman for the Anglican Consultative Council told The Living Church on April 18, but its recommendations will possess the moral authority of the Anglican Communion.

The Rev. Canon Gregory Cameron, deputy general secretary, said the “necessary work proceeds apace for the constitution of and nominations to the panel.” Its members and bylaws will be under the management of the Archbishop of Canterbury and will be announced “at the earliest opportunity,” Canon Cameron said.

The panel of reference “would derive its authority from the requests contained in the primates’ statements of October 2003, which asked that any schemes of alternative pastoral oversight be developed in consultation with [Archbishop Williams], and February 2005, where such a panel was explicitly requested to supervise the adequacy of pastoral provisions made by any churches in order to protect the integrity and legitimate needs of groups in serious theological dispute with their diocesan bishop, or dioceses in dispute with their provinces,” Canon Cameron said.

The primates' Feb. 24 communiqué called upon the Archbishop of Canterbury to set up a mechanism to address situations of disputed pastoral oversight. “In order to protect the integrity and legitimate needs of groups in serious theological dispute with their diocesan bishop, or dioceses in dispute with their provinces,” the primates recommended “the Archbishop of Canterbury appoint, as a matter of urgency, a panel of reference to supervise the adequacy of pastoral provisions made by any churches for such members in line with the recommendation in the primates’ statement of October 2003.”

Canon Cameron observed that while “there could be no legal authority attached to the panel (unless any province were to legislate internally for that), the panel would carry a moral authority as an independent monitoring/arbitration group, which could provide an independent and unbiased assessment of any given situation or dispute referred to it.

“To ignore or contradict its findings would, therefore, be to invite the opprobrium of the Communion, and provide a fulcrum point for any future reactions across the Communion to any particular situation,” Canon Cameron said.

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