By Sam G. Candler

The phrase “instruments of communion” has become standard in serious descriptions of the Anglican Communion of Christian churches.

Each draft of a possible Anglican Covenant, citing recent Anglican theology and drawing upon the good work done at Lambeth meetings, and at Anglican Consultative Council meetings, and at Primates’ meetings, acknowledges four “instruments” of communion: The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Primates’ Meeting. We all know that these last two “instruments” have emerged rather more recently in our history.

However, the word “instrument” is ultimately an inadequate word in its ability to describe a way in which Anglicans share faith and mission together. It sounds too mechanistic, even manipulative. I hereby propose another “instrument” of communion. I hesitate to call it a fifth “instrument” at all; because, again, I do not admire the term “instrument.” Nevertheless, because the word is part of the standard Anglican vocabulary now, I use it.

If the term “instrument” is meant to describe a way in which Anglican Christians have enjoyed communion with one another (for over 1800 years, since Anglican Christianity started way before the Reformation), then the most important “instruments” of our communion have always been living personal relationships that existed far more locally than hierarchically.

Thus, I propose that the most real and most effective “instrument” of our Anglican Communion is the set of actual personal relationships that exist among parishes and dioceses across national and cultural boundaries. These relationships, often existing outside the initiative or control of institutional authorities, are what have inspired Anglicans to deeper faith and service to God. These are personal relationships of witness, service, and prayer; and they have been the efficacious symbols of communion in its highest degree. (I presume they are the “links which sustain our life together,” suggested in paragraph 3.1.4 of the St. Andrew’s Draft of the Anglican Covenant.)

When Pope Gregory the Great sent the first Archbishop of Canterbury to England, Augustine and his followers were surprised to learn that Christians were already there. Thus began a long history of Roman (or, we might say, “institutional”) Christianity differing from Celtic (and, local) Christianity. Most conflicts within Anglican families of Christianity have included some sort of conflict about authority –usually conflict between a more universal human authority and a more local human authority.

During most of these Anglican conflicts, actual relationships between individual Anglicans, parishes, and dioceses are what have held the family of Anglican Christianity together. They were not usually held together by declaration or doctrine or even covenant. They were held together by people holding on to one another.

Consider the relationships that exist at this very moment between parishes and dioceses of the Anglican Communion around the world. We have parish-to-parish relationships across national and cultural boundaries; and we have diocese-to-diocese relationships across national and cultural boundaries.

More importantly, as I hope we all realize now, these relationships are not restricted to one particular theological idiom of Anglicanism; there are both conservative and liberal relationships. One could make the easy case that these very relationships are what have enabled and emboldened certain conservative causes. Yet, similar relationships also exist between more liberal Western communities and non-Western communities.

For most Anglican Christians, the relationships we have within our own parishes are our strongest expressions of Anglican identity. Second to those bonds of communion, the relationships of our own parish or diocese to a parish or diocese outside our nation or culture is the most practical and effective way we have of appreciating and realizing Anglican communion. We are not held together merely by pronouncement or even conciliar agreement.

Though I am uncomfortable with the way in which the word “instrument” has been adopted in recent documents of the Anglican Communion. I certainly understand the word’s usefulness, and I have certainly used the word myself. Still, the word “instruments” to describe the ways in which Anglicans enjoy communion with one another runs the risk of mechanizing our organic relationships. An “instrument’ is a tool or implement. As such, it is impersonal and objective. The real relationships that hold together Anglicans across the world are living and active; they are organic.

As I have read the drafts of the Anglican Covenant, I have noted much that is valuable. I am not opposed to an Anglican covenant. Covenants are good for humanity, and they are good for faithful relationships. “Covenant” is, first and foremost, a biblical notion, because covenant is about promise. We live because God promises to be in covenant, in faithful relationship, with us.

But the most effective covenants occur at the most personal levels. Each of us makes promises to God, and we receive God’s promises to us. Many of us make covenants of our lives to one another in marriage. We make promises to join the Christian Church. Those are good and faithful and real relationships. If we Anglicans want to expand our sense of covenant, even if we want to acknowledge “instruments” that help us discern our shared life, let us not forget the living relationships that actually comprise our communion.

The Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler is dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. His sermons and reflections on “Good Faith and Common Good” can be found on the cathedral's Web site.