The primary responsibility of the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church is to preside at meetings of the House of Bishops and to act as its agent in canonical matters, according to 11 diocesan bishops who endorsed a statement on the church’s polity.
 
The 21-page document, published on April 22, includes more than two pages of endnotes, a number of which cite historical documents dating back to the church’s founding in 1789.
 
“The traditional doctrine and worship and the historic polity of the Church are in grave peril,” the bishops said. “For this reason, we emphasize that The Episcopal Church consists of autonomous, but interdependent, dioceses not subject to any metropolitical power or hierarchical control …We intend to exercise our episcopal authority to remain constituent members of the Anglican Communion and will continue to speak out on these issues as necessary.
 
“We emphasize this significant feature of our governance at the outset because in the recent controversies surrounding the withdrawal of several dioceses from The Episcopal Church, the Presiding Bishop and others acting on her behalf, including the Presiding Bishop’s chancellor, have purported to act within dioceses, to ‘recognize’ or ‘de-recognize’ diocesan officers and to speak on behalf of The Episcopal Church in civil litigation involving dioceses. We respect the desire of the Presiding Bishop to provide pastoral assistance in these areas, and indeed we to want to do all that we can to reach out to persons in those dioceses who wish to remain in The Episcopal Church. But neither she nor anyone acting on her behalf has constitutional authority to act without consent from the Ecclesiastical Authority except in unorganized territory. Nor are they authorized to speak for The Episcopal Church in civil litigation within a diocese. That is not among the constitutional powers conferred on the Presiding Bishop of the House of Bishops or the General Convention as a whole. That is the constitutional prerogative of the Ecclesiastical Authorities of the dioceses, their Bishops and Standing Committees. However we respond to the pastoral needs of continuing Episcopalians in seceding dioceses, it must we done in accord with our Constitution and Canons.”
 
The document makes extensive reference to The Case of the Episcopal Churches in the United States Considered, a document written by the Rt. Rev. William White, the first Presiding Bishop, and widely credited as the blueprint for reorganizing an Anglican-rite church in the United States after the American Revolution.
 
Another significant section compares the language of the constitution and canons of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church with similar bylaws from other denominations to conclude that the founders of The Episcopal Church intentionally created a church in which dioceses “are not subject to hierarchical control by central bodies whether they be the Presiding Bishop, the General Convention, the Executive Council, or the courts of The Episcopal Church.”
 
Despite its claim that The Episcopal Church is a “voluntary association of equal dioceses” and that the constitutionally defined powers of the office of the Presiding Bishop greatly limit the ability of the incumbent to intervene in the internal affairs of a diocese, the document is silent on whether a diocese may legally withdraw from The Episcopal Church.
 
In addition to the 11 diocesan bishops, the document was also endorsed by the Rt. Rev. Paul E. Lambert, Bishop Suffragan of Dallas, three retired bishops, and the three contributing theologians of the Anglican Communion Institute.
 
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