Letter to the Editor: Bonds of affection

Notes: "As a former member of the Anglican Consultative Council and of its standing committees, I am astounded to learn the standing committee actually voted on whether or not to dismiss The Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion. I wonder where it imagines it has the authority to do this. The Anglican Consultative Council, and obviously its standing committee, does not have legislative authority. It is, by definition, consultative, as is the Lambeth Conference and the meeting of Primates. That is the nature of the church. We do not have a central supreme authority; we do not have a Curia. We have disagreements, but what binds us together is greater than things that could drive us apart. We do not always get our own way in debate; not everyone agrees with everyone else. We are not that kind of church. What we do have is a community held together not by laws and government, but by those 'bonds of affection' that have always been the basis of Anglicanism". [Text of entire article.] Writer is the retired Bishop of New Westminster and Metropolitan of British Columbia and Yukon.

Subjects: Anglican Consultative Council; Anglican Communion - Government; Anglican Communion - Structure; Episcopal Church - Relations - Anglican Communion; Community (Religion) - Anglican Communion; Conflict management - Religious aspects - Anglican Communion