‘The authority of the whole body’: episcopal authority in Anglican ecumenical endeavour

ABSTRACT Emphasis on the necessity of the historic episcopate for church unity has decisively shaped Anglican participation in the ecumenical movement. While episcopal authority has not generally been an overt theme, concerns relating to it have consistently shadowed Anglican attempts to take decisive steps towards unity with non-episcopal churches. Anxiety about the bishop’s authority of ordination served as a focus in the three examples considered here, but two other dimensions of episcopal authority, local oversight, and representation to the wider church, were also relevant. In contrast, episcopal authority appears as a significant theme in the four texts on authority produced by the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission. The trajectory of these texts, however, is towards questioning the effectiveness of episcopal authority regarding representation to the wider church in Anglicanism, a dimension that is ultimately crucial for Anglican advocacy of the historic episcopate to non-episcopal churches.