An Outline of an Anglican Life (Tarsitano, 1994)/Appendix IV

Appendix IV of An Outline of an Anglican Life.

Appendix IV: Canon Law

Adapted from a presentation to the Clericus, Diocese of the Eastern United States, Anglican Church in America, 1992.

The Question of Church Law

A misunderstanding of the principles of law, and especially Church law, stands behind much of the disunity in the Church today. Some people espouse legalism: the law for its own sake. Others deny that any law can or should bind them.

Thus, many important questions arise. What is the purpose of the rules of the Church? What is their authority? Is there a "middle way" that makes sense out of the law? On what basis can disagreements among Christians be settled?

The following essay tries to answer these questions in an Anglican way.

An Elegant, Learned Irrelevance

I have in my library a book entitled Clerical Attire: A Historical Synopsis and a Commentary. It is the dissertation of the Rev. Bernard J. Ganter, written to obtain his doctorate in canon law from the Catholic University of America in 1955. It is a two hundred page book about the rules and regulations concerning the clerical attire, down to what color and what type of stockings the clergy ought to wear. But most important for us, as American Anglicans, it is an elegant, learned irrelevance. A treatise on "The Sonnets from the Portuguese" would be as useful pastorally, and rather more interesting reading.

One among the factors that have kept American Anglicans aloof from one another, even though we need each other so badly, has been a misunderstanding of what we Anglicans mean when we use the words "canon law." We need to remind ourselves periodically of what it is we are trying to "continue" in the Continuing Church, so that we will be better at doing it and being it.

The Law Is Not an End in Itself

A most important fact for us to remember is that for us Anglicans the "law" can never be an end in itself, whether it is God's Law or the law of the Church. We know, along with St. Paul, ". . . that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. . . for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified" (Galatians 2:16). We know that the law itself is not morality, since even with the best of intentions the human component of the Church is fallible. We misinterpret, we misapply, we disobey, we legislate on the trivial (it was black socks all around, by the way, for the ordinary clergy). We even admit, in our XIXth Article of Religion, that the greatest of churches can err.

At our best, we are powerfully aware of our need for mercy from God and one another, and that our faith in Jesus Christ is a trust in a divine mercy that we have no right to ask. Our Prayer Book teaches us day by day not to trust in our own power for good, but to become the conduits for a greater, better power. It is no wonder that those who had transferred their faith from Christ to themselves in the former Episcopal Church tried to take our Prayer Books away from us, even as they wrote canon after canon of new ecclesiastical law. When they called the historic Prayer Book "gloomy and pessimistic," they meant that God, rather than man, was exalted as the true agency of goodness.

A Relationship, Not an Institution

The real Anglicanism, then, is a relationship more than it is a religion (in the way that word is used today), certainly more than it is a human institution. We believe that reality is personal and founded in the internal relationship of the Triune God, rather than something static or abstract. We believe that reality cannot be manipulated because God cannot be manipulated; and so we are often chided for not producing "great" theologians of the sort who can make an imaginary God leap through an intellectual hoop.

Moreover, because of our historic and primitive grounding in the preaching and ministry of the line of St. John, St. Polycarp, and St. Irenaeus, we are sacramentally minded. We see creation as the outward and visible sign of the love, power, and glory of God, all focused through, with, and in the unique person of God's Son Incarnate, Jesus Christ. Thus, we are not even in the business of saving souls. We exist to glorify the God who saves souls. We are living a life together, a life dedicated to worshipping and glorifying God as he saves us from ourselves, restoring us to that intimate union with himself that we lost through sin. False modesty aside, it takes an Anglican to put all of this in a word; and our brother William Tyndale did, when he coined the English word "atonement."

Christ Jesus died and rose again to make us "at one" with his Father, the Holy Ghost, and himself. This is, as I said, a relationship, and on the basis of this relationship Christ makes all of us who live in him at one. Our job is to manifest this oneness, not to create it. Our job is to work with the grace of God in our lives to purge ourselves of anything and everything that interferes with our being the human sacrament of unity with God.

This one job is real work, and it is hard to do, so we may shrink from it. We may be tempted to take refuge in the theoretical or the legalistic, secure in the impossibility of completing those tasks that belong rightfully to God. We've all endured as pastors the lay version of this error, when lay people complain that laywork bores or frightens them, so they would really rather do our work as priests instead. But as Christ's representative priests we should never ask God to endure the same sort of annoyance from us, as we try to avoid the work of unity and seek instead to improve his Church with our own ideas.

Order in the Body of Christ

We read a perfectly good description of the primitive Church in action in the Acts of the Apostles: "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (2:42). To the extent that these words do not describe us, we are in error. More than this, if we can dredge up our Greek lessons, we will remember that "fellowship" and "communion" are the same word in Greek (koinonia). We are a steadfastly continuing communion with Jesus Christ, and through him a communion with his Father and with one another. We are by grace and regenerate nature a relationship of oneness, and a fellowship with all the saints of God.

This unity, however, cannot be disordered and still be a unity. It is not free-form. Unity with Christ is to be his Body, and as St. Paul explains: "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular" (1 Corinthians 12:27). The Church is not a democracy; it is ruled by its Head, Jesus Christ, who establishes particular organs of order and unity within it. Note, for example, that it was through the Apostles' fellowship that the early Church was at one with Christ. Note, as well, St. Peter's admonition, "All of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5). "Be subject," here, means to live under a structure (hupotasso). "To be clothed in humility" (to bind on tapeinophrosune) means to abide by that structure, in order to please God and to receive his blessings. And it is only in terms of this structure that we can ever understand the law.

The Law of God, perfectly revealed in the Scriptures, is the will of God for the life of the Body of his Son, perfected today only in the Head of the Body, to be perfected in the lives of all the other members of the Body in God's good time. Under the Old Testament, before the fulfilling obedience of Christ, the Law was the condemnation of a humanity separated from God by sin. In the New Testament of Jesus Christ, the Law is the loving guidance of a Father given to his adopted children in Christ, the careful shaping of their lives into his own righteousness, and a warning of what we would be without him.

The Place of Canon Law

Similarly, our canon law has a subordinate place within the ordered structure of our unity with God and one another. It serves the real purpose of enacting God's Law, preserving the Gospel intact, and keeping this household of God's Church at peace and in order. Just as with God's Law, however, our canon law must be subordinate to persons. True law comes from loving persons, is obeyed by loving persons, and expresses love for persons, rather than for itself. Just as with God's Law, canon law is a condemnation without real people, related to God by grace, to obey it.

A precondition of our canon law is our willingness to obey it as part of being an orderly household. Our First Office of Instruction teaches that this precondition is commanded by the Fifth Commandment, which binds us to say, "My duty towards my Neighbour is . . . . . . To love, honour, and help my father and mother: To honour and obey the civil authority: To submit myself to all my governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters: And to order myself in that lowliness and reverence which becometh a servant of God. . . (BCP 288).

Each of us has already promised obedience on this basis many times: at our baptism, our confirmation, our ordinations, and every time we have accepted an office of authority in the Church. Our authority is, thus, Biblical and spiritual. It comes from God (who alone has power by right) to us, as his delegates, each in our own order and estate of life. When we are challenged in the rightful administration of our authority, it is God, not ourselves, who is the offended party (remember Samuel: see 1 Samuel 8:7-9). When we disobey rightful authority, or overextend our own, we also offend God, and we undercut the authority we are bound to exercise as God's servants.

A Double Table of Organization

There is, then, a sort of "double table of organization" laid out by our faith and enacted by our canon law, one personal and one written. Personally, we are ruled by God the Father, through and under his Son, our Savior and Head, Jesus Christ; by the life-giving power of the Holy Ghost, who guards the mortal members of Christ from final error. Further, we are governed under God by the council of our bishops, our Chief Pastors (BCP 294), as the successors of the Christ-appointed Apostles and the "overseers" appointed by them, with the assistance of the clerical and lay councils of our Church. Our diocese is governed by our bishop, with the assistance of our Synod and Standing Committee. Our parishes are governed by their rectors, with the assistance of our Parish Meetings and Vestries.

Our written table of organization is meant, therefore, to protect our human participation in God's rule from becoming self-willed or self-righteous. We must begin with the Holy Scriptures, God's Word Written, the experience of the Living Word of God delivered to us by the Holy Ghost. No enactment of our own, however old or enduring, may ever rightfully contradict God's Word (see Article XX). It is our oath to obey the Scriptures in our lives and work that makes us ministers of the Gospel.

Tradition Tested

Next come, in something like this order, the undisputed General Councils of the Catholic (universal) Church, the Fathers, the general canon law, and the records of historic practice and experience. These items ought to be what we mean when we say "tradition," and tradition must be subjected itself to two tests. The first is the test of the Holy Ghost. We must not teach or do what is forbidden by or inconsistent with the Holy Scriptures. The second test often takes the form of the "canon" (rule) of St. Vincent of Lerins (A.D. 434: Bettenson, Documents 84):

Now in the Catholic Church itself we take the greatest care to hold THAT WHICH HAS BEEN BELIEVED EVERYWHERE, ALWAYS, AND BY ALL.

It is obvious that an obscure precedent or local practice is never enough to meet this test. Further, we must understand that our local canon law is subject to this same test, as well as the test of the Holy Ghost. Next, then, in order comes the Book of Common Prayer, which is of superior authority to our Church's national constitution, since it has passed both tests, is our connection with historic Anglicanism, and antedates the adoption of our Church's written constitution. Next come that written constitution, the national canons, the diocesan canons, the parish articles of incorporation, and the parish bylaws. These may seem like a lot of laws, but they can be summarized as following Christ, as well as we can, where we are. Whenever our law or our behavior will not fit into this summary it is time to worry. To avoid such worry, then, let us look at how these laws are to be obeyed and enforced.

Obedience and Godly Counsel

The key to obedience is to obey. If a genuine doubt about a particular law exists, it should be tested by the Scriptures. Such a test includes seeking the godly counsel of other members of the Body of Christ, in as quiet a way as possible, since our doubts may be wrong. Our bishops have been charged preeminently with giving godly counsel, but seeking the counsel of other godly men is quite acceptable, as long as our purpose is not to circumvent the bishop's rightful exercise of his ministry. If this step does not quiet the doubt, and scrupulosity has been guarded against, then we must go to the bishop, to the bishop and standing committee meeting together, and to the diocesan and national synods as necessary. This order of inquiry and examination is the legislative due process of our Church.

It must be clear that we are never to legislate for ourselves, nor are we to attempt to micro manage the lives of our fellow Christians by manipulation of the law. We must also understand pastorally that doubt is frequently displacement of guilt connected with law breaking, so that we blame the law rather than ourselves. Finally, we must remember that the essence of heresy is the formation of "parties" or "schools of thought" within the Church that revel in their certainty that they alone understand Christ and seek the power to impose their opinions on the entire Body.

We must, of course, "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3); but we must do so in love, under the rules for disagreeing in love given to us by God. The previous process of inquiry, as you will have recognized, is only an application upon ourselves of Christ's rule for settling controversies and governing the Church, found in Matthew 18:15-18:

Christ's Rule for Settling Controversies

If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Enforcement and Mercy

How much peace the Church would have enjoyed over the centuries if this commandment had been regularly followed is incalculable: we know the price we have paid for its disobedience. To enforce the canon law, we must begin by enforcing Christ's law upon ourselves. If someone appears to be disobeying the canons, he should be approached in private first. Then he should be asked to meet with a few others, not to catch him up, but to be fair to him and to seek arbitration. Those few others, for example, might tell us that we are the ones who are wrong about the law, or that we misunderstand what is happening. This step failing to settle the matter, we turn next to the Church, beginning with our bishop. His godly counsel may very well settle the matter, especially since we deacons and priests have promised to obey our bishops' and other chief ministers' godly admonitions and godly judgments (BCP 533, 543).

It is only as a final resort that we turn to the legal due process of the canons: to a trial of fact, governed by the rules of justice, to determine guilt or innocence. And we must understand that this due process is not infallible, that it may be wickedly misused by ungodly men against the innocent. Many of us have suffered such abuse in other "churches," giving us all the more reason to be tenderhearted and utterly fair in this household. Further, we must understand that God is the final appeal for every human action, and that in the court of his grace even the guiltiest may be forgiven and restored. Never forget what God did with Peter and Paul, a traitor and a murderer.

What Canon Law Is Not

Lastly, in thinking about canon law, we must not think of it as a game, or even as the rules of a game. Keeping score by the canon law is suicidal, since it demands of God the same severity with ourselves. We seek, instead, the blessed answer to the Psalmist's question: "If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who may abide it?" (130:3; BCP 507). And receiving our answer, "O Israel, trust in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption" (130:7), we should go and do likewise ourselves.

Similarly, we must not use the canon law against each other. It was the mob on Good Friday that made the memorable statement, "We have a law, and by our law he ought to die" (John 19:7). We should identify with the victim of that mob, with our blessed Savior, rather than with the mob's vindictive legalism.

Nor should we expect (or desire) the canon law to provide us with a complete church discipline. The Church existed and had a discipline before the first code of canon law was ever written. That discipline resided in the Gospel and other Scriptures, and in the administrations of faithful men. Our sinfulness and failure have demanded the writing of canon laws, but we must not prefer them to the Church itself. That would be like insisting on riding in the lifeboats, instead of in the ship to which they are attached.

Nor are our canon laws the fixed rules of a bureaucracy. Our canon laws are the regulations that guide us in our pastoral ministry, in seeking the good of those entrusted to our care by God. If we discover our bishop or one of our fellow pastors exercising patience with someone we would condemn, we might ask ourselves first whether we are lacking in charity, before we also condemn his laxity in office.

Lastly, we will never win the world for Christ by the perfection of our system of laws. If this were possible, the Pharisees would have converted the world long ago. Our perfection is in following Christ, and as long as we use canon law as one not very important tool among many others, we will have done our duty and kept our claims about our own abilities in proportion. Our purpose is to glorify God and to preach Christ Jesus, and not to tell other people what color socks they ought to wear.

Editorial Notes

Source: Louis R. Tarsitano, An Outline of an Anglican Life (Classical Anglican Press, 1994). Reproduced on AnglicanWiki by permission of Classical Anglican Press.