The fact that each province has its own polity and policy does not prevent other members of the Anglican Communion from considering and coming to its own conclusions about such matters, stated Archbishop Peter Carnley, retired Primate of Australia and chair of the Panel of Reference.

In a letter dated Feb. 12, Archbishop Carnley sought to clarify a number of concerns brought to his attention by Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies. The Panel of Reference was established by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the request of the primates, who at the conclusion of their meeting in 2005 asked the Most Rev. Rowan Williams to establish a panel to investigate and offer recommendations on how to respond to “congregations in serious dispute and unwilling to accept the episcopal ministry of their bishop” and “dioceses in serious dispute with their provinces.”

Mrs. Anderson wrote to members of the panel on Jan. 12 requesting that the panel issue a correction to its December 2006 report which concluded that “no diocese or parish should be compelled to accept the ministry of word or sacrament from an ordained woman.” She also requested that in the future the panel ensure “adequate representation from the province directly affected by the recommendations.”

Archbishop Carnley noted that one of the members of the Panel of Reference, the Rt. Rev. Claude Payne, retired Bishop of Texas, is an Episcopalian, “who clarified many matters for us.” Drafts of the report were shown to Bishop Iker and to both the former and current Presiding Bishop. “Representations were also made to the panel by the Presiding Bishop’s chancellor,” Archbishop Carnley said. “The report is the outcome of a consultative process in which we became fully aware of the decision-making processes of The Episcopal Church.

“In an international Communion of Christians, we do not live in self-contained compartments,” Archbishop Carnley said. “It may be worth restating here that the panel does not have the status of a court or tribunal. Its sole duty is to report to the Archbishop of Canterbury on the understanding it develops of a situation on the basis of submissions made to it by the parties concerned, and, with his consent to offer recommendations which can be considered by the proper authorities of those involved. Any action of a jurisdictional or legislative kind must obviously be taken within an individual province, and in your case the obvious competent institution is the General Convention. That is why the panel recommended that the Presiding Bishop might pursue the clarification of the wording of the relevant canons in that forum, given the varying interpretation of them that had been arrived at by Bishop Iker and Bishop [Frank] Griswold, in addition to the third interpretation now offered by yourself.

“I can assure you that the panel is well aware of the polity of the Episcopal Church,” Archbishop Carnley stated in response to another concern raised by Mrs. Anderson. “We hope, however, that a pastoral rather than juridical resolution of tensions relating to the ordination of women may be possible within The Episcopal Church, and offer the suggestions contained in the Fort Worth Report in this spirit.”

Steve Waring

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