A Request for Action from the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20031204202101/http://www.anglicancommunioninstitute.org:80/request4action.htm
* We are confused about the need for elaborate canon law consultation in the matters of ECUSA and New Westminster, in order for the See of Canterbury to act.
* The consistent plea of the Anglican Communion Institute has been for the Archbishop of Canterbury to exercise his unimpeachable right to gather or not gather members of this Communion.
* We again respectfully request that the Archbishop of Canterbury, joining with the Primates of the Global South, designate the ECUSA as in "observer status" for Anglican Communion affairs, whether Primates Meeting or Anglican Consultative Council or Lambeth Conference.
* We appreciate that there are matters for the newly formed Commission to take up, including the work of canon lawyers, and we await their findings. We hope that, as promised, something definite may be worked out for situations like the one which obtains now in the ECUSA, which will require a greater role for the Archbishop of Canterbury, should that be what the Commission determines.
* In the meantime, we request that the Archbishop of Canterbury exercise his proper authority in declaring the status of those whom he will gather for Communion affairs.
The ECUSA has clearly demonstrated that it intends to operate as an independent entity, outside the declared framework of the Communion, and indeed as jeopardising its unity and witness. Some formal action must be taken if the recent statement of the Primates is not to be judged an empty letter.
In all of this we refer to the booklet prepared for the Primates of the Anglican Communion, Claiming Our Anglican Identity.
