The Limited Authority of the Anglican Consultative Council
By David Virtue, VOL:
For years it has been assumed that of the four instruments that one — the Anglican Consultative Council — had the power to say who was in or out of the Anglican Communion.
It was an assumption made first by Canon John L. Peterson, then Canon Kenneth Kearon who succeeded him and now Dr. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, the former Anglican Archbishop of the Province of Kaduna the present Secretary General of the ACC.
One of the reasons then ACNA Archbishop Robert Duncan did not apply for membership in the Anglican Communion is because he knew he would be turned down by Secretary General Kearon an Irish liberal, who would never have recognized two Anglican integrities on North American soil and because TEC gives some $400,000 a year to support the Anglican Communion office.
At the recent gathering of Primates in Canterbury the new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Michael Curry made the following observation that the Primates are one body and not as important as the ACC which he said had the real power to say yes or no as to who was in or out.
The Presiding Bishop emphasized the autonomy of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), in the wake of the Primates’ decision to censure his Church.
However, at their meeting in Canterbury, the Primates’ said the US Episcopal Church could no longer represent them on ecumenical and interfaith bodies, nor serve on the Primates or ACC standing committees, and not vote on matters of polity and doctrine at the ACC for a period of three years, because of its support for same-sex marriage.
However, a close examination of the constitution of the Anglican Communion office reveals that the ACC has no such power, that it has been an assumed and derived power and that, in truth, it has no authority to enforce such exclusion.
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