Governance

• Governance
  • Work of the Vestry
  • January Vestry Meeting
  • 2011 Operating Budget
  • Vestry Calendar 2011 - 2012
  • Vestry Handbook
  • Role & Responsibilities of Vestry Members
  • Standing Committees of the Vestry
  • Annual Meeting & Nominations
  • Strategic Plan (2009-11)
  • Bylaws & Constitution

About the Polity of the Episcopal Church*

• Contents:
  • What is "Polity"?
  • Our Form of Polity
  • Baptismal Authority
  • Polity in the Wider Anglican Communion

What is "Polity"?

“Polity” means the particular way in which an organization makes decisions and governs itself. Speaking in general terms, there are three types of church polity: episcopal, congregational, and presbyterian.

In the "episcopal" form (the small “e” is intentional), Church authority is vested in bishops who make major decisions of doctrine and direction for the churches in their charge. Bishops are also the chief ministers of the church . Other ministers are presbyters (or priests) and deacons. All these are mentioned in the New Testament. Examples of this form are Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican.

There is the "congregational" form, where final authority for belief and practice rests with the members of the individual congregation. As the name implies, this puts the emphasis on the place of the congregation. Congregationalism as a system appeared after the Reformation. Examples include United Church of Christ, some Baptists.

The third form is "presbyterial", where the authority of ruling the church is vested in elected church officials, who make the major decisions on the behalf of the congregation. This system emphasizes the importance of elders, or presbyters. From the account of the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 we see that the presbyters occupied an important place at the very highest levels of the early church. For example, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and its off-shoots.

Our Form of Polity

No modern Church system can be traced exclusively back to the Early Church. Our church, though it shares its name with the “episcopal” form, is not strictly episcopal in its organization and structure of authority. The Episcopal Church, effectively blends the episcopal and presbyterial forms. This structure shares decision-making between clergy and lay, and in so doing broadens our base of discernment and authority.

Baptismal Authority

We believe that the Holy Spirit is active in the lives and voices of all Christian people; and that the authority of the Church is grounded in our baptisms.

The process of sharing Baptismal authority begins with the “communicants” in the parish. At the parish annual meeting, communicants in good standing in the parish vote to elect new members of the vestry. When a communicant votes in the annual meeting of her parish, she invests SOME of her baptismal authority in the Vestry. The vestry members receive that authority as responsibility to make their appointed decisions on behalf of the parish. A vestry’s election of wardens and appointment of a rector (or Dean) are further examples of investing SOME of one’s baptismal authority in others.

The congregation also invests baptismal authority in the delegates it sends to the annual Diocesan Convention. Delegates have seat, voice, and vote and are charged with electing a bishop (when required); passing the diocesan budget; electing leaders of the diocese (Standing Committee, Diocesan Council, etc.), who in turn receive the baptismal authority as responsibility to make their particular decisions on behalf of the diocese; setting policy and canon law for the diocese; and electing our diocesan deputies to General Convention. When our Diocesan Bishops and Deputies to General Convention attend the Convention, they take with them the baptismal authority invested in them to make decisions for the Episcopal Church on behalf of the Diocese that sent them. They in turn elect the President of the House of Deputies (from among the deputies) and the Presiding Bishop (from among the bishops).

In OUR church (Episcopal Church of the USA), the authority is in the pews—not over us, coming down, but among us, coming up. When we invest our baptismal authority in others through election, we “surrender” our authority to them, which they then receive as “responsibility” to exercise that authority on our behalf. As in any representative democracy, we surrender our authority to others by election, so that those whom we elect can make decisions on our behalf, for the good of the whole. When we believe those to whom we have surrendered some of our authority are acting in accordance with God’s good will, we may choose to continue to elect them. When we are concerned that is not happening, we may choose to elect others. On a historical note, the Episcopal Church’s polity was devised by the same people who wrote the United States Constitution.

And it’s not just the authority that begins in the pews, but the issues of the day as well, as when communicants ask questions: Why should women not serve as clergy? Or as a warden? Or as a member of vestry? Why can’t people of different colors worship together? Does our common prayer still speak to our community as well as it did fifty years ago?

On every level of our church, authority is shared between lay people and ordained people.

Polity in the Wider Anglican Communion

This approach to leadership is uncommon in the Anglican Communion–the world-wide fellowship of Christian churches who trace their roots to the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury. In the Church of England and across Africa and Latin America, bishops make decisions, and then hand them down to the communicants. Throughout most of the Communion, there is no such thing as a “House of Deputies” or a Standing Committee that includes laypeople in the decision making process. In the Episcopal Church, and in a few other Anglican provinces, such as Canada and New Zealand, authority is in the pews; it is manifested through our relationships, so that every communicant has a voice of authority and can participate in the Church’s decisions.