I believe I have to some extent identified a characteristic that is fairly widespread in Continuing Anglicanism, and which seems to be at the root of many conflicts and contestations of power, especially between bishops. There is another aspect, which I will discuss later, which is the notion of the fewness of the saved and the idea that the priesthood should also concern only the few.

The heart of this matter is the concept of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and the mission. It is based on the saying of St Paul (Rom 10): And how shall they preach, except they be sent? The Apostles were sent on their mission by Christ. Christ was sent by the Father. We priests are sent by our Bishop. This is a fundamental notion of the Church, and none of us acts by our own authority.

During my years in the Roman Catholic traditionalist world, I came across various attempts to formulate a theological explanation for the ‘crisis’ in the Catholic Church, namely (as those people perceived it) the ‘heresies’ of ecumenism, religious freedom and the liturgical rites promulgated by Paul VI. One very colourful thesis was by a Dominican priest of the old Roman school, Fr Michel Guérard des Lauriers, who briefly taught theology at the SSPX seminary at Ecône, Switzerland. Fr Guérard des Lauriers was a theologian in the tradition of Cajetan, a commentator of St. Thomas Aquinas in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. His main idea in what came to be known as the Cassiciacum Thesis, named after the review in which it was published, Cahiers de Cassiciacum. The idea was one that had been developed by St Robert Bellarmine. Taking it further, Guérard des Lauriers deduced that Popes John XXIII and Paul VI were Popes materially, but not formally.

The notions of matter and form are a part of Aristotelian metaphysics – hylomorphism, taken from the Greek words hylé and morphé, respectively meaning matter and form: everything has matter and form. The matter of a chair is wood, and its form is what differentiates it as a chair from a table or a window frame. If matter can be separated from form, which I doubt, and if there is anything in Guérard des Lauriers’ theory, the Pope would have the outside appearance of being a Pope (elected by Conclave, sitting [sessio] on the Throne of St Peter, etc.) but deprived of the authority (missio) received from Christ to govern, teach, and sanctify the Church. As the theory goes, if the papa materialiter recanted his ‘heresies’, he would then become formally Pope as well as materially.

This might seem to be gobbledegook to most of us, and I detest this kind of theology! But it is an effort to explain a situation in which the Pope is believed to be infallible but this particular Pope is believed not to be infallible. What is interesting is the distinction made between sessio and missio, namely that a legitimate priestly ministry may be possible in certain circumstances without having or being under the jurisdiction of a diocesan Ordinary and the authority of the Pope. If the Pope and the bishops are in heresy, then it is legitimate to defy their authority and yet have a legitimate ministry by virtue of the canonical principle of epikeia (the law is interpreted according to the intention of the Legislator – salus animarum seprema lex, the salvation of souls is the supreme law).

Now, some people in the traditionalist world of the 1970’s and 1980’s simply denied any legitimacy of the Pope and either established their own sedevacantist communities with their own bishops, or even adopted the so-called conclavist position. In the logic of this extreme deduction through a partial interpretation of facts, a Church without legitimate authority and the magisterium is intolerable. It is a vicious circle, for there is no way authority can be restored, except by means of electing a Pope. The solution was to have a “conclave” in order for the alleged virtual handful of traditionalist Bishops to elect one of their own as a legitimate Roman Catholic Pope. As things happened, very few sedevacantist bishops were remotely interested in something that, in their view, would not produce a legitimate Pope. Finally, some of the laity made attempts at such a “conclave” and elected a person to be proclaimed as Pope. Three examples are reasonably well-known, a Michael I living in Kansas USA and followed by his family and a few faithful via the Internet and Pius XIII, a former Franciscan priest, now deceased. The third is probably a hoax, called Alejandro Tomas Greico, who took the name of Alexander IX.

As conclavism was discredited by these and other more questionable individuals, attention began to be turned to finding Catholic bishops who were never “compromised” by participation in Vatican II. Some compassed sea and earth to find bishops in Africa, Communist China, the Eastern European countries, Russia and elsewhere. One community of priests in America finds bishops to ordain its seminarians. The men are ordained illicitly but receive a priesthood of unquestionable validity. In the absence of legitimate jurisdiction and Christ’s mission through the Church, through the normal channels, these people sought the most creative solutions.

I have discovered that the same instinct exists in Continuing Anglicanism. It begins with the notion put forth by the Affirmation of St Louis:

The Dissolution of Anglican and Episcopal Church Structure

We affirm that the Anglican Church of Canada and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, by their unlawful attempts to alter Faith, Order and Morality (especially in their General Synod of 1975 and General Convention of 1976), have departed from Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The Need to Continue Order in the Church

We affirm that all former ecclesiastical governments, being fundamentally impaired by the schismatic acts of lawless Councils, are of no effect among us, and that we must now reorder such godly discipline as we strengthen us in the continuation of our common life and witness.

The Invalidity of Schismatic Authority

We affirm that the claim of any such schismatic person or body to act against any Church member, clerical or lay, for his witness to the whole Faith is with no authority of Christ’s true Church, and any such inhibition, deposition or discipline is without effect and is absolutely null and void.

The absence of authority in the mainstream Anglican Communion we left compels us to “reinvent” the Anglican Communion. That is the heart of Continuing Anglicanism – Anglican sedevacantism. It is not in the nature of Anglicanism to seek to elect a Pope, but it is to elect Bishops claiming the ordinary jurisdiction (sessio) as the bishops they claimed to replace.

As bishops of different Continuing Churches compete in their claims for ordinary territorial jurisdiction, there is the root of “alphabet soup” conflicts.

That is my diagnosis. My recommendation is simple, redefining the notion of episcopal jurisdiction as service to the faithful and the clergy as the particular church manifests itself in reality. This colludes with my reflections on independent sacramental churches.

I’ll leave off here and address matters as brought up by comments.