Clergy Status in the Age of the Royal Commission
Diocesan Bishops and Clergy sit as separate Houses of General Synod alongside the House of Laity, with separate voting rights when invoked. In the Appellate Tribunal, three of whose seven members are diocesan bishops, key decisions must also achieve the concurrence of at least two bishops and two lay members. The Special Tribunal appointed to hear disciplinary charges against diocesan bishops has three members, two of whom are clergy.24 All diocesan constitutions retain an effective episcopal veto25 on legislation; and also voting by “houses” (clergy and laity) if called for. There are separate allocations for clergy and laity on diocesan councils. In some of the sanctioned liturgies, roles are set apart exclusively for those in priestly orders, 26 which is not the same as saying that these requirements are universally practised. The Roman Catholic Church is democratic in that a conclave of cardinals elect the Pope. After that, the Pontiff holds all governance cards. The 1983 Code of Canon Law vests in him “supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church” (Canon 331). Canon 333 adds that “there is neither appeal nor recourse against a judgment or decree of the Roman Pontiff”. The Pope can also declare, amend and dispense with any aspect of the canon law.27 This authority vastly outstrips even the claims of the Stuart kings in the run-up to the Glorious Revolution. Catholic lay folk have been ceded few if any roles in governance, as distinct from administration. And lay celebration of the Mass does not occur apart from extreme situations in the mission field that are only whispered about. The formalities of clergy status: Ordination, licensing and oaths of canonical obedience Absent Church Establishment, the principal way in which Australian Churches are enabled to hold doctrinal and liturgical lines is through their several monopolies to ordain, commission and licence clergy, and to vest sufficient governmental authority in them to hold those lines. Such authority is underpinned by hierarchical control over property that is underwritten by civil law. While ordination occurs in and through the Church, “it recognises the prior call and gift of God through the Holy Spirit”.28 The Church’s responsibility is to discern, recognise and authorise the exercise of the relevant ministry (diaconal, priestly or episcopal). The calling or office is not just functional, because ordination (like baptism) confers the relevant status “in the Church of God”.29 (I shall pass over Roman Catholic non-recognition of Anglican orders.) For Anglicans in this country, the criteria for ordination to the three orders and the formalities to be met are set out in the Canon Concerning Holy Orders 2004 (and for Sydney Diocese the Solemn
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Constitution, s 56 (1). Through the diocesan bishop effectively voting as a separate “house” as a necessary step to passing ordinances etc. See Appellate Tribunal, Report on Reference concerning diaconal and lay presidency, 7 March 1996; Report on Reference concerning the administration of Holy Communion and the Lord’s Supper by persons other than a Priest or Presbyter, 10 August 2010. See Kieran Tapsell, Potiphar’s Wife. The Vatican’s Secret and Child Sexual Abuse, ATF Press Adelaide, 2014. To quote from the recent report of the Doctrine Commission of the Anglican Church of Australia on Deposition from Holy Orders, citing the opening prayer in the A Prayer Book for Australia services for the ordination of deacons and priests. See Report on Reference concerning diaconal and lay presidency, 7 March 1996 at p 27 per Young J (“it is impossible to define the orders of bishops, priests and deacons in terms of functions”).
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