Anglican Communion News Service

We as the Bishops of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa have been deeply shocked by the action taken by Archbishop Tay and others in consecrating two priests to minister in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America.

We too, with the Archbishop of Canterbury and other Primates, regard these consecrations as totally irregular and irresponsible. The action taken is thoroughly anarchic and undermines proper order in the Church of God.

As Archbishop Michael Peers points out; "In our tradition bishops are chosen by the local Church according to its standards and practices." What Archbishop Tay and others have done actually makes a mockery of the Church's sacrament of episcopal ordination.

In the light of this development, we wish to recommend to the Primates of our Communion, that they

1. Express their condemnation of these consecrations.

    

2. Declare the Bishops thus consecrated to be out of the Communion with Canterbury, and thus out of Communion with every Province.

    

3. Give full support to the Presiding Bishop and Primate of ECUSA and his house of Bishops especially in the search for reconciliation which the Presiding Bishop has initiated.

    

4. Call for repentance on the part of those who have erred so grievously.

    

5. Call us to prayer, that we may persevere in:

    

   1. learning to accept and respect one another with our differences, and in our unity, in the due order of the Body under the Holy Spirit;
   2. searching together for those things which make for peace and promote our common faith in Jesus Christ.

Archbishop of Cape Town and Metropolitan Of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa