In 2013 an “Ecclesiology Committee of the House of Bishops” produced something they called “A Primer on the Government of the Episcopal Church and its underlying theology.” We have evaluated the document in detail at the Anglican Communion Institute website. Recently the document appeared again, this time at a House of Bishops meeting in North Carolina (See the weblog of Bishop Dan Martins).What is the purpose of trying to secure a place for this understanding of TEC’s polity at this point in time?
Leaving aside a possible pragmatic purpose (to aid in litigation), one thing that emerges in the course of the sixteen-page discussion is an assertion of the “supreme authority” of General Convention (p. 9). Yet one might rightly ask in just what sense this might be so, given the presence within the Episcopal Church of a Constitution, which itself defines the role of General Convention, Bishops, the Book of Common Prayer, and other obvious touchstones of authority, and which cannot be deviated from by canon or General Convention action. Indeed, the Primer itself adverts to this when it speaks of General Convention’s conduct being subject to “parameters” (p. 9).
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