Explanation

Many dioceses throughout the Episcopal Church already contain combined ministries with other Christian denominations. The Church of England calls these “Local Ecumenical Partnerships” and shares them with various Christian denominations. In the Episcopal Church’s context, this is increasingly becoming a missional reality in rural communities and college chaplaincies. The Constitutions and Canons of the Episcopal Church have no explicit provision for these combined ministries to operate with ordained leadership other than Episcopal ministers or those in formal full-communion agreements. The Standing Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations believes this constitutional change and a relevant canon (also submitted to the 81st General Convention) would make that provision and lay out the limited circumstances under which such partnerships could be formed. The canon also makes clear that this only applies to denominations whom the Episcopal Church has affirmed their “apostolicity, ordained ministers and sacraments” by act of general convention or membership in organizations chartered to do so and that ordained ministers of these denominations are credentialed only within the bounds of the ministry of the Limited Ecumenical Partnership.