Mark McCall

TITLE IV REVISIONS

Dear Bishops Bill, Bruce, Jim, John, and Mark,

On supremacy:

From “Is The Episcopal Church Hierarchical?”, pp. 11-13.

HALLER DISCOVERS GAMBLING IN THE BACK ROOM;

THINKS IT MUST BE LEGAL

Tobias Haller disagrees with our recent analysis showing that General Convention lacks constitutional authority to authorize supplemental liturgical materials. [insert links to our piece and Haller’s] His response begins as follows: “Those who are ignorant of history...are doomed not to know what they are talking about.

LOSING THEIR NERVE:

WHAT THE COURTS WOULD DISCOVER IF THEY EXAMINED TEC POLITY AFRESH

 ACI’S POSITION ON TEC POLITY

DO BISHOPS DESERVE DUE PROCESS?

By Mark McCall

Last week we published an analysis of proposals to have this General Convention authorize supplemental liturgies that would be neither part of the Book of Common Prayer nor a proposed revision of it. Based on the detailed text of Article X of TEC’s Constitution, we concluded that General Convention does not have this authority and that whatever authority does exist to authorize supplemental rites resides in the bishop of each diocese.

Every bishop, priest and deacon undertakes at ordination "to conform to the doctrine, discipline and worship of The Episcopal Church." The recent action by General Convention purporting to authorize bishops to authorize a rite for blessing same sex couples raises in an acute way the question of what exactly is the worship of The Episcopal Church to which all clergy promise to conform. We look carefully at this question below.

One of the allegations now being made against Bishop Lawrence is that the decision by the Diocese of South Carolina to continue to adhere to the prior Title IV canons rather than adopt the controversial new revisions constitutes abandonment by being an open renunciation of the discipline of TEC.  Last March Alan Runyan and I published an article that undertook a careful examination of the history of TEC’s Constitution as it relates to clergy discipline.

REFLECTIONS ON KENNETH KEARON'S LETTER TO BISHOP TITO ZAVALA OF THE SOUTHERN CONE The Anglican Communion News Service has posted a notice from the Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) stating that he has written Bishop Tito Zavala who represents the Province of the Southern Cone on the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO). In his letter the Secretary General withdrew Bishop Zavala's membership in that body, but asked him to continue on as a consultant.