What follows is the complete text of the resolution previously published only in part.
Additional text is underlined. Links to additional text in italics.
ACC Constitution (Recommendations of the Windsor Report)
The Anglican Consultative Council
(a) takes note that the Secretary General has taken appropriate steps to implement and respond to the recommendations of Appendix One of the Windsor Report insofar as they relate to the administration of the Anglican Communion Office, and thanks him for this work;
(b) requests that the Standing Committee of the Council and the Archbishop of Canterbury give consideration to convening a meeting of the Standing Committee at the same time and in the same place as the next meeting of the Primates, and that they facilitate the opportunity for joint sessions of business and consultation;
(c) requests that the Schedule of Membership of the Council be amended to make the members of the Primates’ Standing Committee for the time being ex officio members of the Anglican Consultative Council in accordance with the text set out in Appendix One;
(d) resolves that the Constitution of the Council be amended by the deletion of existing Article 7(a) and replacing it with the text set out in Appendix Two;
(e) requests that the Schedule of Membership of the Council be amended to provide that the Primates and Moderators of the Churches of the Provinces of the Anglican Communion shall be additional ex officio members of the Council, and that in order to achieve appropriate balance between the orders of bishops, clergy and laity in the Council that the representative members shall thereafter be only from either the priestly and diaconal orders or from the laity of the appropriate Provinces as set out in Appendix Three, the execution of this amendment being subject to:
(i) the Primates’ assent to such a change at their next meeting;
(ii) two thirds of the Provinces of the Anglican Communion giving their approval of such a change by resolution of the appropriate constitutional body;
(iii) final amendment (if any) and approval by the Standing Committee in the light of such deliberations;
(iv) such provisions taking effect in relation to existing members of the Council only upon the occasion of the next vacancy arising in the membership.
Appendix One
The Schedule of Membership shall be amended by adding the new category:
“(e) Ex officio members
Five members of the body known as the Standing Committee of the Primates of the Anglican Communion in each case for so long as they shall remain members of such Standing Committee.”
and that the remaining categories in the schedule be redesignated accordingly.
Appendix Two
Article 7(a) of the Constitution shall be amended to read as follows:
“7(a) The Council shall appoint a Standing Committee of fourteen members, which shall include the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman of the Council, and the members listed in category (e) to the schedule to the Constitution. The Secretary General shall be the Secretary of the Standing Committee.”
Appendix Three
The Schedule of Membership shall be amended as follows:
“(b) Three from each of the following, either two clergy (priests or deacons) and one lay person, or one priest or deacon and two lay persons.”
“ (c) Two from each of the following, consisting of one priest or deacon and one lay person.”
“(d) one lay person from each of the following:”
Two points:
There are three orders: deacon, priest, bishop
Lay people are not in orders.
Representation from the order of deacons is not the same as representation from the order of priests. They should not be interchangeable. The number of deacons should be llimited as it is not to their order to sit in the councils of the church.
Curiously enough, the Catechism of the 1979 BCP speaks of the laity as if it were a fourth order (although it never uses the word “order” to refer to the laity, or bishops, priests & deacons, for that matter) Dom Gregory Dix used to describe Confirmation as the ordination to the lay state Be that as it may, my question is, does this proposed change mean that the only bishops who can serve on the ACC are the primates? If this is the case, I certainly do not approve of the change & hope the Episcopal Church does not endorse… Read more »
Why shouldn’t the Anglican Consultative Council staff post texts like this on the Internet within 24 hours after they are adopted?
In any event, Kudos to Simon for obtaining and publishing it.