As bishops in the Church, that must be our focus, whether as leaders in our dioceses, or more widely in the Communion. Let me then turn to the question of the consecrations in Singapore. Archbishop Tay and Archbishop Kolini have indicated to me that they consider this to be 'an interim action to provide pastoral assistance and nurture to faithful individuals and congregations', and that it 'establishes no new entity'. I fear that this pragmatic view of episcopacy does not accord with the tradition of the Church, which has, since the second century, recognised the call to be a bishop as a call from God to a ministry which is fundamental to the right ordering of the Church. This is a tradition which was reaffirmed in the document known as the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, which was adopted in an amended form as Resolution 11 of the 1888 Lambeth Conference, and which has since become a fundamental document in the Anglican understanding of the Church.
Territorial integrity is a most important element of due episcopal order and collegiality.
Against the background of different issues over the years, successive Lambeth Conferences have emphasised and endorsed this principle, which itself reaches back at least to the Council of Nicea. In order to safeguard this ministry, the Church has developed a process by which that vocation to be a bishop can be discerned, encouraged and authorised. Although the precise details of that process may vary from place to place, nonetheless every Anglican Province contains within its constitution and Canon law, a set of procedures for the appointment of bishops. In the case of this particular consecration, neither the constitution of the Province of South East Asia nor that of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda, to whose primates John Rodgers and Charles Murphy have sworn an oath of canonical obedience, have been followed. In addition, Anglican polity requires that ordained ministers should be properly authorised to pursue their ministry in the Province within which they wish to work, and according to the Canon law of that Province.