Explanation

Standing Committees are essential to the life of their diocese, sharing with the diocesan bishop to direct and support it. Unlike new bishops, however, there are no mandated support services to guide committee members when they must take on the weighty responsibility of exercising ecclesiastical authority in the absence of a bishop. The fact that no person or body should ever exercise rule and authority without accountability does not currently apply when a Standing Committee assumes such authority. Furthermore, it is not clear how that authority is defined in those circumstances. This lack of accountability and clarity of scope have occasionally led to significant abuses of power.

An important aspect of our Church’s ecclesiology since its beginnings in America is the bishop’s accountability for the exercise of episcopal authority, including ordinations and depositions, to the diocese’s Standing Committee. The approval of episcopal elections by Standing Committees is also significant since it replaces and represents the original requirement of the General Convention’s approval of new bishops. This constitutes the Committee’s ordinary ecclesiastical authority, conferred on its members by election of the diocesan convention or council. How that authority changes in the absence of a bishop is what remains to be understood and defined, in order to hold accountable the Committee.