Anglican Communion Head Should be Elected from among Primates
by David Virtue, Virtueonline:
In a hard-hitting chapter in a new book on the state of the Anglican Communion, The Future of Orthodox Anglicanism, The Rt. Rev. Mouneer Anis, Bishop of Egypt says the communion must open itself to leadership chosen by fellow primates.
“Now after 150 years, the nature of the Communion has changed. Anglicans in the Global South represent more than 80 percent of the members of the Anglican communion. Courage is now needed to review and revise the current structure and representation within the Communion.”
The bishop of Egypt, a leading player among Global South bishops, reiterated the Windsor Continuation Group’s belief that the Anglican Communion suffers from an “ecclesial deficit” in which the “diversity of theological judgment has exceeded (by far) interdependence among the churches of the Communion.”
“Any church must limit theological diversity in order to maintain theological coherence. But what we Anglicans call our “Instruments of communion have not had the authority–or have not exercised their authority–to maintain theological coherence and protect the essentials of the Christian faith.”
There has not been a healthy balance between diversity and interdependence, he said.
Bishop Anis, who is also a medical doctor, said the essentials of Christian orthodoxy must be defined, and member churches of the Communion must uphold them and guard them. “To achieve this, we must form a conciliar body of the primates in the Communion (archbishops of each province), plus other elected bishops, and this council should have the authority to make binding decisions and guard the faith.”
Anis said the Anglican Consultative Council was meant to be consultative but had wrongly assumed authority, and the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lambeth Conference should both be augmented.
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