Anglicans Ablaze: Bad to the Bone – Part 3

Robin Jordan has a way of explaining the historical background to the current crisis in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in North America. He said:

. . . During the nineteenth century the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Episcopal Church promoted the view that all authority in the Church is derived from the bishops as the successors to the apostles. The parish clergy, the parish vestry, the diocesan convention, and the diocesan standing committee obtain their authority from the bishop. The general convention obtains its authority from the college of bishops. What limits the constitution and canons imposed upon episcopal authority are voluntary. This view would shape thinking about the role of the bishop and the exercise of episcopal authority in the Episcopal Church. This view tended to encourage bishops to be disdainful of the constitution and canons of their diocese and the province and to see themselves as above the law.

To read the rest of the article click here: Anglicans Ablaze: Bad to the Bone – Part 3