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Authority, Unity, and Mission in the Windsor Report
Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2005 by Douglas, Ian T
Over the last thirty-five years there has been an increasing emphasis on, and proliferation of, structures and "Instruments of Unity" at the global Anglican Communion level.3 In the last decade and a half, in particular, many have looked to inter-Anglican structures as possible agents of authority with the power to clarify difficult issues in Anglicanism, using juridical means if necessary. These structural responses to the challenges of identity in an increasingly diverse and plural Anglican Communion might not best serve the Communion at this time.4
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The articulation of worldwide structures as Instruments of Unity in response to questions of authority and unity has been part of interAnglican discussions only since the mid-1980s. The 1987 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) discussed a paper drafted by a small working group chaired by Archbishop Robin Eames (also chair of the Lambeth Commission). "Unity in Diversity within the Anglican Communion" noted "four traditional instruments for maintaining the unity in diversity of the Anglican Communion": the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conferences, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Primates' Meetings.5
The Instruments of Unity were given even greater significance with the publication of the Virginia Report by the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission (IATDC). This report to the 1998 Lambeth Conference considers the nature of communion in Anglicanism and in its concluding chapter presents a full exposition of the four Instruments of Unity.6 The Virginia Report underscores the importance of "structures" and "instruments" for effecting communion at the global level. The significant overlap between the recommendations of the Virginia Report and the Windsor Report concerning the Instruments is not to be overlooked. The overlap is not surprising given the fact that two significant members of the Lambeth Commission on Communion were part of IATDC in 1998: Archbishop Robin Eames (who chaired IATDC) and Bishop Mark Dyer.
At the 1998 Lambeth Conference the Virginia Report was not so much a matter of discussion and debate as a backdrop for all discussions related to inter-Anglican authority and unity. Resolutions were drawn up and passed by the conference that built on the work of IATDC. Resolution III.8 on the Virginia Report commended the report and requested "the Primates to initiate and monitor a decade of study in each province on the report and, in particular on 'whether effective communion, at all levels, does not require appropriate instruments, with due safeguards, not only for legislation, but also for oversight.'"7 Resolution III.6 on "Instruments of the Anglican Communion" advanced the role of primates, seeking to make them the episcopal members of the ACC. It also asked "the Primates' Meeting, under the Presidency of the Archbishop of Canterbury, [to] include among its responsibilities . . . intervention in cases of exceptional emergency which are incapable of internal resolution within provinces, and giving of guidelines on the limits of Anglican diversity."
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