Mike Watson

This paper examines whether the Presiding Bishop is authorized to initiate and conduct recent property litigation and finds no source for such authority in the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church.  Arguments based on a presumed equivalence of the roles of the Presiding Bishop and Executive Council to those of a corporate CEO and board of directors are found not to be valid.  The paper also examines claims that pursuit of litigation is necessitated by fiduciary duty.  It concludes that no convincing case has been made that this is so.  First, no person is under a fiduciary dut

Much of the criticism of the Anglican Consultative Council's deliberations concerning the Anglican Communion Covenant has centered on control of the resolutions committee by those opposed to a covenant with real accountability, confusing and inadequately explained procedures during the debate and intervention by the Archbishop of Canterbury said to have had the effect of diminishing chances for adoption of the intact Ridley Cambridge draft.   As forceful as those criticisms may be, there is still more to the story.   The bottom line is that it appears the deliberative process did not produc