The Windsor Report 2004
The Lambeth Commission on Communion Mandate
The Archbishop of Canterbury requests the Commission:
- to examine and report to him by 30th September 2004, in preparation for the
ensuing meetings of the Primates and the Anglican Consultative Council, on the legal and theological
implications flowing from the decisions of the Episcopal Church (USA) to appoint a priest in a committed
same sex relationship as one of its bishops, and of the Diocese of New Westminster to authorise services
for use in connection with same sex unions, and specifically on the canonical understandings of communion,
impaired and broken communion, and the ways in which provinces of the Anglican Communion may relate to one
another in situations where the ecclesiastical authorities of one province feel unable to maintain the
fullness of communion with another part of the Anglican Communion
-
within their report, to include practical recommendations (including reflection on emerging patterns
of provision for episcopal oversight for those Anglicans within a particular jurisdiction, where full
communion within a province is under threat) for maintaining the highest degree of communion that may
be possible in the circumstances resulting from these decisions, both within and between the churches
of the Anglican Communion
-
thereafter, as soon as practicable, and with particular reference to the issues raised in Section IV
of the Report of the Lambeth Conference 1998, to make recommendations to the Primates and the Anglican
Consultative Council, as to the exceptional circumstances and conditions under which, and the means by
which, it would be appropriate for the Archbishop of Canterbury to exercise an extraordinary ministry
of episcope (pastoral oversight), support and reconciliation with regard to the internal affairs of a
province other than his own for the sake of maintaining communion with the said province and between
the said province and the rest of the Anglican Communion
- in its deliberations, to take due account of the work already undertaken on issues of communion by the Lambeth Conferences of 1988 and 1998, as well as the views expressed by the Primates of the Anglican Communion in the communiqu�s and pastoral letters arising from their meetings since 2000.