The Lambeth Appeal and the Appeal of Britain

In 1920, the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops issued the “Appeal to All Christian People.” While much has been written on its genesis in 1920 and its impact on the later ecumenical movement and on Anglicanism, much less has been written about the relationship of the sort of ecumenism espoused by the Lambeth Appeal to the international political developments of the time. This article assesses the impact of the First World War and the Versailles Settlement on some of the assumptions underlying the Lambeth Appeal, examining how the appeal was in many ways a by-product of a new form of internationalism, which itself was closely related to the reinterpretation of the British Empire that emerged during the war.     

The Contribution of Common Principles of Canon Law to Ecclesial Communion in Anglicanism

An important recent development in worldwide Anglicanism is the emergence over recent years of a project to articulate the principles of canon law common to the churches of the Anglican Communion. This project seeks to express the juridical character of Anglicanism from a global perspective, not only to underscore the many fundamental values that Anglicans share in terms of their polity, ministry, doctrine, liturgy, rites and property, going to the very roots of Anglican identity but, also, as a concrete resource for other churches in ecumenical dialogue with Anglicans. This article traces the development of the so-called ius commune project, describes the methodological challenges which it faces and, the process of producing a draft. It also seeks to compare the project with the juridical experiences of other international ecclesial communities and, briefly, to place the project in the context of the debate about the adoption of an Anglican Covenant, an initiative proposed by the Lambeth Commission in 2004.     

Principles versus procedures in making health care coverage decisions: addressing inevitable conflicts

It has been suggested that focusing on procedures when setting priorities for health care avoids the conflicts that arise when attempting to agree on principles. A prominent example of this approach is “accountability for reasonableness.” We will argue that the same problem arises with procedural accounts; reasonable people will disagree about central elements in the process. We consider the procedural condition of appeal process and three examples of conflicts over coverage decisions: a patients’ rights law in Norway, health technologies coverage recommendations in the UK, and care withheld by HMOs in the US. In each case a process is at the center of controversy, illustrating the difficulties in establishing procedures that are widely accepted as legitimate. Further work must be done in developing procedural frameworks. The opinions expressed are the authors’ own. They do not reflect any position or policy of the National Institutes of Health, US Public Health Service, or Department of Health and Human Services. This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH Clinical Center.     

The Appeal to Expert Opinion: Quantitative Support for a Bayesian Network Approach

The appeal to expert opinion is an argument form that uses the verdict of an expert to support a position or hypothesis. A previous scheme‐based treatment of the argument form is formalized within a Bayesian network that is able to capture the critical aspects of the argument form, including the central considerations of the expert's expertise and trustworthiness. We propose this as an appropriate normative framework for the argument form, enabling the development and testing of quantitative predictions as to how people evaluate this argument, suggesting that such an approach might be beneficial to argumentation research generally. We subsequently present two experiments as an example of the potential for future research in this vein, demonstrating that participants' quantitative ratings of the convincingness of a proposition that has been supported with an appeal to expert opinion were broadly consistent with the predictions of the Bayesian model.     

Opening a donor's wallet: The influence of appeal scales on likelihood and magnitude of donation

We examine the influence of appeal scales on the likelihood and magnitude of donation in a large field experiment. We argue and show that the leftmost anchor on the appeal scale most strongly influences the likelihood of donating; the lower the anchor, the higher the donation likelihood. Furthermore, our findings indicate that increasing the steepness of the amounts on the appeal scale increases the magnitude of donations. Both effects are stronger for infrequent than for frequent donors. Our results demonstrate that by using what a charity knows about past donor behavior, it can alter appeal scales to change donation behavior.     

A Tortoise in a Hurry: The Ordering of the Anglican Communion

Many Anglicans have begun to see the institutions of the Anglican Communion as something of a ‘tortoise’, either because of their halting journey towards gay and lesbian inclusion, or because of the way in which they have only slowly moved towards a clear rejection of such an ‘innovation’. How does the Anglican Communion actually operate in the face of such developments? This article argues that the Instruments of Communion have adopted an ordered approach to the Communion's life – working through legitimate structures both at provincial and Communion level. It sets out some of the main channels through which the Communion has been working – the Windsor Process and the proposal for an Anglican Covenant – and argues in favour of such an ordered approach to life.     

The Idea of an Anglican Covenant: A Faith and Order Perspective

Recent Roman Catholic texts (Dominus Iesus, 2000, and Responsa, 2007) have raised the question of what kind of theological understanding enables Catholics to identify what constitutes a ‘proper’ church. This article addresses the same question with regard to both the Anglican Communion and its constituent member churches. It examines how the churches of the Anglican Communion understand their own ecclesial character at different levels (local, national/regional and worldwide), in relation above all to their professed belief in the ‘one holy catholic and apostolic Church’. It considers some of the current ways in which Anglicans appear to regard themselves as ‘church’ and seeks to identify some historic questions concerning their ecclesiology. Against this background, the article shows how the need for something like a covenant has been urged for many years and asks whether this might provide a possible way forward at a time of crisis for the Anglican Communion.     

A Tale of Two Churches: The Ecclesiologies of The Episcopal Church and the Church of England Compared

This article compares key aspects of the ecclesiologies of The Episcopal Church and the Church of England. First, it examines and contrasts the underlying logic of their structures and the relationships between their constituent parts (General Synod/General Convention, diocese, parish/congregation). Against this background, it then looks at the place of bishops in the ecclesiologies of the two churches (in relation to clergy and parishes, in relation to diocesan synods/conventions and standing committees, and nationally). The American Presiding Bishop's role is contrasted with the traditional roles of primate and metropolitan. Throughout, attention is given to origins and historical development. Reference is also made to the relevant constitutional, canonical and liturgical provisions. Rapprochement between the two ecclesiologies is noted, especially with respect to the role of the laity, but the article argues that this is far from complete. Each church's ecclesiology continues to be determined by its origins; important modifications have been made within that framework, rather than overturning it. It is hoped that the analysis will illuminate the current disputes within The Episcopal Church and the crisis within the Anglican Communion that they have prompted.     

Communion and Covenant: A Theological Exploration

In discussion of the proposed Anglican covenant, surprisingly little attention has been paid to biblical and theological understandings of covenant-making. After demonstrating this through a survey of the original Windsor Report proposal and subsequent contributions to the covenant process, this article explores six aspects of covenant-making in Scripture relevant to the Anglican Communion crisis and argues that these can and should shape work on the covenant. It draws attention to the bond between covenant-making and communion; the identity-giving nature of covenanting; the importance of promise-making and trust-building within covenants as a response to fractured relationships; the sacrificial nature of covenants; the power of covenants to assist recollection and restoration in relationships; and the missiological heart of God's covenant-making. These characteristics demonstrate some of the theological riches in the concept of ‘covenant’ which may help the Communion address its current difficulties and should be made more explicit.