In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
We, the Bishops of the continuing Anglican Catholic Church, together with the clerical and lay Delegates from the Diocesan Synods, answering the call of the Affirmation of St. Louis, now assembled in our First Synod, and intending, with God's blessing and under His guidance, to consider and determine upon such matters as shall appear necessary for the re-ordering of such godly discipline as will strengthen us, and by which we may be soundly unified and governed, and to preserve the common heritage of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, received by us through the Church of England, whose sons and daughters we are, and for the welfare of the Church in these lands, desire to express our most humble and hearty thanks to ,Almighty God, that it has pleased Him in His Providence so to unite us into one Church, and thus enable us, as in the ancient days, to assemble as one body, under the direction of His Holy Spirit, Whose aid we now invoke, and in the Name of His only-begotten Son, for the consolidation and advancement of His Kingdom.
Before entering on the business for which we are at present assembled, we desire publicly, for the avoiding of all misunderstanding, and solemnly, to declare the principles upon which we propose to proceed.
We declare this church to be, and desire that it shall continue, in full Communion with all Anglicans throughout the world who remain faithful to Apostolic Order (including the male Episcopate, Priesthood, and Diaconate), as an integral portion of the one Body of Christ composed of Churches which, united under the One Divine Head and in fellowship of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, hold the one Faith revealed in Holy Writ, and defined in the Creeds as maintained by the undivided Primitive Catholic Church in the Seven Ecumenical Councils; receive the same Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as containing all things necessary to salvation; teach the same Word of God; partake of the same Divinely ordained Sacraments through the Ministry of the same Divinely instituted Apostolic Orders; and worship one God and Father through the same Lord Jesus Christ, by the same Holy and Divine Spirit Who is given to them that believe to guide them into all truth.
And we are determined by the help of God to hold and maintain the Doctrine, the Seven Sacraments, and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded in His Holy Word and as this Church hath received and set forth the same in the Book of Common Prayer; to maintain the Scriptural and Apostolical Form of Episcopal Church Government; and to transmit the same sacred trust unimpaired to our posterity.
We desire no control or authority over any but those who are or shall be members of this Church.
Proceeding upon these principles, we humbly commit ourselves to His good -guidance, and we firmly rely upon His continual blessing and mercy; and we humbly pray that He, Who is the God of unity and peace, may ever be with us, and so chasten our affections, purify our motives, and guide our judgement, that we may the more be enabled to contribute to the good estate of Christ's One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and the extension of His Kingdom in these lands; and to the attainment of these ends, to which we firmly do believe God has vouchsafed to call us, and according to these aforesaid principles, we do set forth this Constitution.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.
The Anglican Catholic Church is a constituent member of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ, faithfully continuing the Anglican tradition. This Church upholds the historic Catholic Faith, Apostolic Order, Orthodox Worship, and Evangelical Witness as set forth in the 1962 Canadian and 1928 American editions of the Book of Common Prayer, and accepts as binding and unalterable the received Faith and Traditions of the Church, and its teachings, including the male Episcopate, Priesthood, and Diaconate, as set forth in the Holy Scriptures; the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds; the writings of the "ancient Catholic Bishops and Doctors"; and especially as defined by the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church.
We fully receive and consider ourselves bound, both as to Custom and the General Canon Law, by the Common Law of the Church.
The name of this part of the historic Church shall be The Anglican Catholic Church.
Each such Diocese of this Church shall be duly organized with a Constitution or Canons, or both, as follows:
(a) THE ORDINARY,
Each Diocese shall have an Ordinary who shall be a Bishop in the line of Apostolic Succession and who shall possess and exercise such inherent power, authority, and jurisdiction as is recognized by Ancient Canons and Tradition for such Bishop to possess and exercise, subject to the provisions of this Constitution.
(b) THE SYNOD.
Each such Diocese shall have a Synod which shall have and possess the legislative jurisdiction therein and which Synod shall consist of three constituent authorities, namely:
(1) the Ordinary thereof;
(2) all the other Clergy canonically resident in that Diocese concerned; and
(3) Delegates of the Laity from each of the congregations in union with that Diocese concerned.
Such legislative jurisdiction shall be exercised by such Synod aforesaid provided that all the foregoing constituent authorities shall agree.
Such legislative jurisdiction shall be subject and subordinate to the Common Law of the Church, this Constitution, and Canons enacted pursuant to this Constitution.
No enactment or resolution in any such Synod shall have effect without the Assent of the Ordinary, which Assent is not lightly nor without the gravest cause to be withheld. The reason for any withholding of Assent shall be given in writing.
(c) The DIOCESAN COURT OF THE ORDINARY OR CONSISTORY COURT.
Each such Diocese shall have either a Diocesan Court of the Ordinary or a Consistory Court, through which the judicial authority of the
Ordinary shall be exercised, and which Court shall have jurisdiction within that Diocese over:
(1) the Clergy, excepting Bishops, and the Laity for the trial of offenses against Ecclesiastical Discipline and Law;
(2) constitutional and canonical controversies; and
(3) all other Ecclesiastical Causes.
Appeals from the Diocesan Court may be taken to the Provincial Court, as provided for by Canon.
All legislative jurisdiction not otherwise provided for by this Constitution, and the Canons enacted in pursuance thereto, shall be reserved to the Dioceses.
Any Diocese, Missionary Diocese, Missionary District, or other such jurisdictions of this Church, other than those composing the Original Province thereof, shall be free to continue to designate its Synod and Diocesan Court of the Ordinary or Consistory Court by whatsoever name or names, as well as to continue to designate the composition or authority thereof, or both, as the case may be, that heretofore may have been customary in that place concerned.
New Dioceses may be established from the territory of one or more existing Dioceses with the consent thereof or from territory not part of an existing Diocese with the consent of the Provincial Synod exercising missionary jurisdiction over such territory.
Dioceses and Provinces shall adopt Constitutions or Canons, or both, consistent herewith, allowing for the convenient establishment of new Dioceses.
No Diocese or Province shall unreasonably withhold or delay its consent to the establishment of a new Diocese that meets the provisions of this Article when petitioned to give such consent by the appropriate numbers of congregations and priests.
Whenever a new Diocese is established from the territory of one or more existing Dioceses, it shall have as its Constitution and Canons, those of the Diocese from which the new Diocese drew the greater number of its founding congregations or, if such cannot be ascertained, then those of the oldest of the Dioceses from which it has drawn any of its founding congregations, except as local circumstances may prevent, until it shall have opportunity to adopt a Constitution or Canons, or both, of its own.
When a new Diocese is established from territory not part of an existing Diocese it shall adopt and operate under a provisional Constitution or Canons, or both, until it shall have adopted a permanent Constitution or Canons, or both.
Every new Diocese shall have not fewer than five Priests and shall be composed of not fewer than ten non-dependent congregations, each of which shall have had continuously, for the six months period next preceding the formation of the new Diocese, not fewer than twenty baptized adult members, of whom nor fewer than ten shall be communicates; provided, however, that the establishment of a new Diocese shall not result in a previously existing Diocese being reduced to a size of fewer than fifteen non-dependant congregations or fewer than eight canonically resident Priests with Cure.
Every Diocese shall form a territorially contiguous unit, except that congregations which were without the territory of the Diocese with which they were already affiliated as of September 21, 1978, may continue such Diocesan affiliation until not later than the first Sunday in Advent, 1980, by which time they shall have affiliated with the respective Dioceses within whose territory they located.
The Synod adopting this Constitution shall by Canon assign territories to the Dioceses represented thereat, and shall make appropriate provisions for the establishment of new Dioceses and the exercise of episcopal authority in other areas.
In no case shall any Diocese contain more than thirty-five congregations, meeting the criteria set forth in Section 3 above, for a period of longer than three years.
When, in the opinion of the College of Bishops, there is the need therefor, the College may create a Missionary District in any area outside of the United States of America, with a Bishop, even where there are fewer Clergymen and congregations than are required for a Diocese.
In order to be ordained and consecrated a Bishop in this Church, a man shall have been rightly baptized and confirmed and rightly and canonically ordained to the Diaconate and the Priesthood.
He shall meet the Scriptural, Apostolical, and Patristic qualifications for ordination and consecration, and he shall be free of sufficient objection that he is justly liable to evil report, either for error in religion or for viciousness of life.
He shall preserve chastity, and he shall not have disavowed a valid marriage, nor shall he be married to a woman who has done so.
He shall be of sound mind and body.
He shall meet such other qualifications as Canons shall prescribe.
(a) Method of Nomination to a Provincial Synod. Candidates shall be nominated to a Provincial Synod in the following manner:
(1) The Vestry of any Parish may advance the names of any candidates for episcopal election within their Province, requesting and requiring thereby their Diocesan Delegates of the Assembly of the Laity in the Provincial Synod concerned to nominate the same on their behalf.
(2) The Clergy of any Diocese may, by a simple majority vote, advance the names of any candidates for episcopal election within their Province, requesting and requiring thereby their Diocesan Members of the Senate of the Clergy in the Provincial Synod concerned to nominate the same on their behalf.
(3) Further nominations may be made from the floor by Members of either the Assembly of the Laity or the Senate of the Clergy or by Members of the Council of Bishops of that Province.
(b) Method of Election of Candidates.
The Three Houses shall meet in joint session as a committee of the whole for examination as to the fitness of the several nominees for candidates for the Office of Bishop.
Election of nominees for candidate for Bishop shall be by secret ballot and by orders.
Nominees receiving no less than two-thirds majority in each order of votes cast at such joint session shall be elected candidates for the office of Bishop in that Province.
(c) Eligibility of Candidates.
Such godly men of the Church so certified as candidates for Bishop shall be eligible for election by any Diocese of that Province to any Episcopal Office to which it may elect between the time of this Synodical certification and the next regular meeting of that Provincial Synod concerned.
The remaining candidates so certified remain candidates until the said next regular meeting, but the candidacy of any such not elected to the Episcopate itself before said regular meeting shall lapse.
(d) Certification as the first Order of Business.
Such certification of candidates shall be the first order of business at every regular meeting of the Provincial Synod after its organization.
(e) Exception to the Application of this Section.
The provisions of this section shell not apply to those Diocese represented at the Constitutional Synod in the selection of their initial Ordinary.
If the number of men having been so certified by any regular meeting of a Provincial Synod be fewer than twelve, then additional nominations of otherwise qualified men may be made in the manner provided by the Constitution or Canons, or both, of the electing Diocese; and provided that in addition to the men so certified or otherwise nominated as this Article allows, all Bishops of this
Church not retired and not under ecclesiastical censure shall be eligible for nomination in any Diocese.
Any man elected Bishop whose name was not first so certified as being eligible for the Episcopate must be approved for ordination and consecration by at least three-fourths of the Bishops of the Province, meeting collegially, and by the Metropolitan.
(a) Writs of Election to Vacant Sees.
Whenever a See falls vacant, the Metropolitan, or the College of Bishops in the absence of a Metropolitan, shall issue forthwith the Writ of Election to such Diocesan authority as may be specified in the appropriate Diocesan regulation.
Upon receipt of such a Writ of Election said authority shall forthwith issue its Writ of Summons to the Diocesan Electors according to the regulations provided by that Diocese.
(b) Writs of Election to other Bishoprics.
For election to Co-adjutor, Suffragan, Assistant, or Auxiliary Bishoprics, the Writ of Election shall be issued upon petition of the appropriate Diocesan authority only with the consent of the Metropolitan and the College of Bishops of that Province, and upon the procedures required in the foregoing subsection (a).
(c) Commission to preside at Elections to Bishoprics.
The Metropolitan, or the College of Bishops in the absence of a Metropolitan, shall commission such person or persons to preside over said election as may be specified in the Canons or other regulations of the Diocese concerned.
If no provision has been made, the Metropolitan shall preside in person or by episcopal deputy.
When such election is duly certified to the Metropolitan, he shall take order for the Consecration.
No man shall be ordained and consecrated Bishop until he shall have attained the age of forty years, nor shall he be consecrated by fewer than three Bishops, unless for grave cause the Metropolitan, or the College of Bishops, shall so direct.
A Bishop shall confine the exercise of his Office to his own Diocese unless he shall have been requested to perform Episcopal Acts in another Diocese by the Ecclesiastical Authority or the Guardians of the Spiritualities thereof, or unless he shall have been authorized by the Metropolitan, acting with the advice and consent of the College of Bishops, to act temporarily in case of need within any territory not yet organized as a Diocese of this Church.
Nothing contained in the legislative jurisdiction of the Holy Synod or the Provincial Synod shall limit or affect the powers, jurisdiction, and authority inherent in the Office of Bishop as Apostle, Shepherd, Prophet, Evangelist, and Teacher or exercised collegially by the Bishops of the Church, excepting that Office and Government shall not be in conflict with this Constitution or the Canons enacted pursuant hereto. And it is hereby declared to be the particular duty of the high priestly Office of Bishop, as a Steward of God and an Ambassador of Christ, to proclaim the Word of God and the Gospel of Christ to all men, sanctify the faithful committed to his charge and safe-keeping, and, together with other Clergy and the Laity, guard and defend the Church's Faith and Moral Teaching.
Any Bishop holding an Episcopal Office may resign that Office at any time by written notice to his superior or to the next senior Bishop.
Upon attaining the age of seventy-five years, a Bishop serving in any Episcopal Office shall annually submit to the appropriate Synod concerned his offer to retire.
If his offer is accepted by that Synod, his retirement shall become effective in thirty days.
Such retired Bishop may perform spiritual acts at the request of the Metropolitan, the Ecclesiastical Authority, or the Guardians of the Spiritualities of a Diocese.
Those Dioceses represented at the Synod at which this Constitution shall be proposed, and which shall accede thereto, shall be established as the Original Province of this Church.
After not fewer than fifteen nor more than twenty-one Dioceses shall have acceded to the Constitution of this Church, the Provincial Synod shall provide by Canon for the formation of two additional Provinces, which Provinces shall have the authority to adopt their own Constitution and Canons in conformity with the Constitution and Canons of this Church.
This Constitution shall remain the Constitution of the whole Church and shall be binding on each Province thereof.
Upon the formal establishment of three Provinces of this Church, all Articles and provisions of this Constitution in regards to the Primacy, the Holy Synod, and the High court of the Holy Synod shall take effect and be operative.
A regional Church or a Province of the Church or jurisdictions or other such portions thereof, being of undoubted Catholic Faith and Apostolic Order, already constituted, in existence, or established may accede to this Church by formal petition of their Bishops or Bishop or appropriate Synod or Synods concerned, or both, as the case may be, to the Primate of this Church, who may receive such aforesaid ecclesiastical entity or entities provisionally under his jurisdiction and authority.
The Primate shall investigate the matter and, upon his being fully satisfied therein, may accept and receive such aforementioned Church or Province or jurisdictions or portions thereof into full union with this Church with the advice and consent of the College of Bishops of this Church and with other canonical consent as may be necessary.
However, when any such action aforesaid is to be taken within a six month period prior to any meeting of the Holy Synod, then the Primate may accept and receive such aforementioned Church or Province or jurisdictions or portions thereof into full union with this Church with only the advice and consent of the Holy Synod.
Until there be a Primate, a College of Bishops, a Holy Synod, and a High Court of the Holy Synod of this Church, the authority, functions, duties, and jurisdiction assigned to such entities or authorities aforesaid shall be exercised respectively by the Metropolitan, the College of Bishops, the Synod, and the Court of the Metropolitan or Provincial Court of the Original Province of this Church.
Any Province of this Church, other than the Original Province thereof, shall be free to continue to designate its Metropolitan, College of Bishops, Provincial Synod and the various Houses thereof, and the Court of the Metropolitan or the Provincial Court thereof by whatsoever name or names as well as to continue to designate the composition or authority thereof, or both, as the case may be, that heretofore may have been customary in that Province concerned.
Each Province of this Church shall have as its Chief Bishop and Pastor a Metropolitan, who upon entering his Office shall have the title and dignity of Archbishop of the See of which he shall be the Ordinary, that See becoming the Archiepiscopal See during his tenure of Office as Metropolitan. Upon vacating the Office of Metropolitan, he shall retain the title of Archbishop.
The Metropolitan of each Province of this Church shall be the Ordinary chosen by two-thirds vote of the Council of Bishops and consented to by two-thirds vote each of the Senate of the Clergy and the Assembly of the Laity of that Provincial Synod.
The, Metropolitan shall serve for life unless he shall resign, retire, or be removed in accordance with this Constitution and Canons.
In the event the Office of Metropolitan of a Province of this Church becomes vacant between me of the Provincial Synod concerned, the Ordinary most senior in respect to consecration shall act in the capacity of the Metropolitan until the next meeting of that Provincial Synod concerned, at which time a Metropolitan shall be chosen as prescribed in Section 2 of this Article.
If for any reason the Metropolitan is temporarily unable to fulfill his duties, the most senior Ordinary of that province by right shall function in his stead,, until that Metropolitan is able to resume his duties or his Office is vacated.
The Metropolitan of each Province of this Church shall convene and preside over the College of Bishops of that province and be its President, and he shall convene the Provincial Synod and be the President thereof, shall preside over the Council of Bishops in such Synod and all joint sessions of the Synod, shall forward non- privileged decisions of the College of Bishops of that Province as a whole, and shall, after consultation with the Bishops of that Province and any body so authorized by the Provincial Synod, speak in the name of the Province.
Such Metropolitan shall have the Charge of that Province concerned, together with the General Pastoral Concern and the Metropolitical Jurisdiction thereof.
The Metropolitan shall visit and consult with each Diocese in his
Province and its Synod at least once every three years and, upon the petition of at least one-third of either the clerical or the lay constituent authority of the Diocesan Synod, mediate any Diocesan controversy.
Wherein any Province of this Church it heretofore has been customary for the Metropolitan thereof not to be styled an Archbishop, such Metropolitan may continue to be styled in accordance with such customs as aforesaid.
Also wherein any Province of this Church it heretofore has been customary for the Metropolitical See not to be designated an Archiepiscopal See, such See may continue to be designated in accordance with such customs as aforesaid.
In cases wherein any Metropolitical See of this Church heretofore has been customarily a fixed See, such See may then continue as before with its heretofore customary mode of election of its Metropolitan or the Province so concerned may at any time choose to conform to the provisions respectively of Sections 1 or 2, or both, above of this Article.