Church of the Word
APO CHANGES TO CO

Dioceses' Appeal for APO Modified

(The Rev.) George Conger
10/27/2006

The dioceses which appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury for alternate primatial oversight (APO) last summer have modified their petition and no longer seek an “alternative primate” to exercise metropolitan oversight. Instead they have asked Archbishop Rowan Williams for a “commissary” from Canterbury. The Living Church has learned that Archbishop Williams recently informed the petitioning bishops the issue will be discussed during the meeting of Anglican primates Feb. 14-19 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

“Commissary” or Commissarius Apostolicus is an ecclesial term for someone appointed to act on behalf of a bishop as an episcopal agent in the bishop’s absence. Commissaries were appointed by the Bishop of London for the 13 colonies to oversee Church of England parishes until the American Revolution.

The modification of the APO request is due in part to developments which occurred during the Sept. 11-13 meeting in New York City called by Archbishop Williams. As part of a draft agreement which was rejected later by both sides in the current disagreement, Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies was named as an acceptable commissary, a Network bishop told TLC. Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori also told the traditionalist bishops during the meeting their request was problematic as she could not grant something she did not possess. She was not a metropolitan or archbishop, but a presiding bishop, and had no oversight over their dioceses.

This article comes from The Living Church Foundation
http://www.livingchurch.org/

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