So the only one of the Instruments of Communion that includes lay people, already in danger of being sidelined within the Communion, has just voted to dilute its lay membership with the Primates.

This sounds like an episcopal take-over. Or will the Primates' Meeting now be dissloved into the ACC?

With the decision of the ACC to include the primates as ex officio members we seem to be now further down the slope to becoming a clerical church with laity in the minority. I wonder what "wisdom" has led the ACC to make this decision.

"This sounds like an episcopal take-over"

I am sorry to have to break it to you, but for better or worse the Anglican Communion IS an Episcopal church. That means that for better or worse, bishops are in charge.

Personally I don't like this move since the ACC is CONSULTATIVE (the clue is in the name guys) not executive - the primates already ARE in charge. There should be a clear division but I guess the problem is that the ACC is seen as an executive body. But let's not have any talk of an episcopal take over - the episcopacy took over the Anglican church quite a long time ago ;-)

Going by the numbers it's interesting that the motion just passed evidently did not include the Primates' votes.

This means that those provinces which have only 1 member on ACC will now be represented by their primates, thus depriving clergy and lay people of a chance to participate in the life of the "wider" church. The primates now sit literally on 3 of the "Instruments of Unity" (and figuratively, I'm afraid, on the fourth).

I would defend this change as a transitional measure to deal with Lambeth foot-dragging against the Anglican Communion's Global South majority. Canterbury and the Anglican Consultative Council secretariat have used their organizational advantages (such as control of the agenda) to derail or undercut action by orthodox leaders of the Global South. Moreover, ECUSA adroitly used its funding of the council to exert a disproportionate (and in my view, baleful) influence. Although the council had a nominally representative structure, it was too often stage-managed to achieve unrepresentative results by a rich-country, reappraising minority --- and by bureaucrats who were supposed to serve the council rather than manipulate it.

Adding the primates to the council helps counteract this gamesmanship --- and thus make the council more representative in practice. The primates have learned how to stick together and exert themselves in the face of busywork agendas and other such tactics. Adding them will also reduce the potential for a disconnect between the council and the primates at this crucial time.

Dear Friends,

Doesn't "ex officio" mean the newly-added primates to the ACC don't have a vote? For instance, in a parish I served recently, the retiring Senior, or Rector's, Warden can sit on the Vestry, or Parish Council, for one year ex officio, with voice but no vote. Can an "ex officio" representative take the place of a voting member on the ACC? Please help me out on this.

With regard to the word "Episcopal" in the name of my church, ECUSA, being taken to mean a church run by bishops, the Episcopal Church was born after the American Revolution freed us from rule by England, and the Episcopal Church almost didn't happen at all. The reason was that our experience of bishops of England, who had power over us before the revolution, was such that when we re-formed as a church many of us didn't want bishops. Full stop.

Our bicameral government came about in ECUSA as an assurance to those who didn't want bishops that those bishops would not be able to rule the church unilaterally. We still have a distaste for the "prince of the church" model of episcopate.

Can anyone tell me if we of ECUSA are the only ones in the Anglican Communion who eschew being ruled by our bishops? It might answer a lot of questions if we are.

With prayers for the Peace of Christ among us all, I am your faithful servant, The Reverend Lois Keen, Boothwyn, PA, USA

The ACC is supposed to bring together representatives from all provinces to talk with each other, to offer different voices from around the Communion for the ABC to hear, and to build cooperation among provinces. It seems like by including the primates, the agenda is to turn it into a legislative body, with synodical powers (what's the next step, enforcing its decisions by removing bishops or expelling provinces?)