Instruments of Communion: The Primates’ Meeting, the ACC, and their predecessors

From The Living Church-

One reason why the issues that have divided Anglicans over the last 50 years have proved so difficult is that they stir up ecclesiological questions. Which body or bodies (if any) have moral authority to speak on behalf of the Communion to its individual churches? What deference (if any) should be accorded to their pronouncements?

The 1997 Virginia Report commented positively on the ACC as including laypeople, but noted that its existence “raises questions,” whereas the Primates’ Meetings “have an inherent authority by virtue of the office which they hold as chief pastors.” It emphasized the bishop’s role as “one who represents the part to the whole and the whole to the part, the particularity of each diocese to the whole Communion and the Communion to each diocese.” In 2008 the Windsor Continuation Group observed, “Not all believe that a representative body is the best way to express the contribution of the whole people of God at a worldwide level.”

More here-

http://livingchurch.org/covenant/2017/09/11/instruments-of-communion-the-primates-meeting-the-acc-and-their-predecessors/