Eames Commission Meets in London
Episcopal News Service. December 1, 1988 [88259]
NEW YORK (DPS, Dec. 1) -- "I am looking to you as a Commission to give the Primates advice about our manner of living together in the Anglican Communion...." The Archbishop of Canterbury began his charge to the Commission on Communion and Women in the Episcopate, meeting in London, England, November 23-25, with these words.
Called the Eames Commission -- for its chairman the Most Rev. Robin Eames, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland -- the group was established by a resolution of the 69th Lambeth Conference to answer questions about Communion among the provinces of the worldwide Anglican body once women bishops had been consecrated in any of its provinces. Since Lambeth and the drafting of the Lambeth resolution, the issue has become especially pertinent because of the election by the Diocese of Massachusetts of the Rev. Barbara Harris as Suffragan Bishop on September 24. [See DPS 88201-88204.]
In a statement issued at the close of the meeting, Eames reiterated the charge of the Commission, and its ongoing life. In summing up their deliberations, he made clear the special role the Commission was playing in the life and structure of the Communion. "While the 27 member Churches of the Anglican Communion are selfgoverning, we are, at the same time, a Communion of Churches with deep bonds which we share in Christ. There is no central legislative body: each Provincial Synod or Convention legislates as it deems fit and proper for its own territorial jurisdiction. As a worldwide Communion of Churches we engage in a consultative process -- not a legislative process."
Eames also made it clear that the Commission was not formed "to examine again the arguments for and against the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate." Rather, Eames stated, Lambeth passed the Conference Resolution "in the knowledge that three Provinces (Canada, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and New Zealand) have decided that they do not intend to withhold consecration to the episcopate of a woman who is duly elected by the legal requirements of their Provinces."
In light of the Harris election in the United States, the Commission also supplied guidelines for bishops from outside the Episcopal Church who might receive invitations to her consecration. "...We recommend that both invitations and responses should be coordinated through the Presiding Bishop and the Primate of the particular Church concerned. A decision [to attend or not to attend] should be made in accordance with the canonical position of the Province and within the collegiality of its Bishops."
Eames also acknowledged that the work of the Commission in defining relationships in the Communion once women had been elected to the episcopate and consecrated could not be accomplished in the initial London sessions. He announced that a second meeting would be held in the United States in March 1989, in part because the Episcopal Church of that province was "a Church with positive experience of the ministry of women priests and also [a Church] with thoughtful and loyal members who do not accept this develEames went on to trace the process beyond the March Commission meeting: "Our report...will then go to the Archbishop of Canterbury for presentation to the Primates of the Anglican Communion who will meet in Cyprus at the end of April 1989."opment."
In addition to defining the five key elements in the exercise of episcopal ministry (Ministry of the Word, Sacramental Ministry, Pastoral Care, Embodiment and Agent of Unity and Continuity, and Defender and Interpreter of the Faith) and laying down suggested guidelines for "the exercise of episcopal ministry in any diocese other than their own," Eames summed up for the Commission the heart of their initial deliberations.
The Commission, addressing Resolution 72 from the 69th Lambeth Conference, "reaffirmed its unity in the historical position of respect for diocesan boundaries and the authority of bishops within these boundaries" and "affirms that it is...inappropriate behavior for any bishop or priest of this Communion to exercise episcopal or pastoral ministry within another diocese without first obtaining the permission and invitation of the ecclesial authority thereof."
The report concludes with an eye to the projected March 1989 meeting in the United States: "... We will attend to... pastoral guidelines...to assist those who will be required to attend services where a woman is to be consecrated a bishop, and subsequently, when she will exercise a sacramental ministry." In these instances, the report concludes, "the spirit of Resolution 1 [of Lambeth 1988] will need to be invoked to the full -- words like "respect" and "courtesy" will have a special meaning."
In reacting to the Eames Commission Report, Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning was positive about the summary statement from London and described the body's work as "well begun." He also stated that he would be consulting with the Rt. Rev. Mark Dyer, Bishop of Bethlehem, the representative of the Episcopal Church on the Commission.
Browning went on to express his pleasure at learning of the Commission's ongoing plans: "I am pleased that the next meeting of the Commission will be held in the United States. I will offer to them the full cooperation of my office to assist them in any way they deem appropriate."