Editor’s Note: The Rev. Dr. Stephen Noll, now a board member of Anglican Compass, also served from 2015 to 2020 as the Convener of the GAFCON Task Force on Women in the Episcopate. In 2017, this Task Force issued a recommendation for a moratorium on the consecration of women bishops. In this article, we share Dr. Noll’s 2019 essay…
The Bishops’ Conclave: A Rookie Anglican Guide
What is a conclave? Put simply, a conclave is a private meeting of bishops gathered to select a new archbishop or for other important business. The conclave’s Biblical prototype is the apostles’ gathering, on the first Easter evening, behind a locked door. Theologically, a conclave puts emphasis on Christ as the key. Etymology of the…
What is Apostolic Succession, Anyway?
What does it mean be in a church that had an unbroken line of succession to the first Apostles, namely to Peter and finally, to Jesus Christ?
Episcopal Polity: A Rookie Anglican Guide
Authority isn’t a bad word Protestants, especially Western Protestants from democratic countries, who look at the Anglican Church from the outside will find a method of leadership that is quite foreign and perhaps distasteful. If we have been set free by Christ, they may think, why should we let some man in a pointy hat…
Equipped by the Historic Episcopate (Jerusalem Declaration 7.1)
We recognise that God has called and gifted bishops, priests and deacons in historic succession to equip all the people of God for their ministry in the world.