Bishops: Church’s Doctrine, Worship, Polity in ‘Grave Peril’

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The 21-page document, published on April 22, includes more than two pages of endnotes, a number of which cite historical documents dating back to the church’s founding in 1789.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 and, most recently, the retired Bishop of West Missouri, 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. However much we respect the desire of the Presiding Bishop to provide pastoral assistance in these areas, neither she nor anyone acting on her behalf has constitutional authority to act without the Ecclesiastical Authority except in unorganized territory. Nor are they authorized to speak for The Episcopal Church in civil litigation within a diocese.”

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.”

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/4/23/bishops-churchs-doctrine-worship-polity-in-grave-peril