Committee on Constitution and Canons Share Preview of New Edition
July 5, 2022
Preview the new edition (full version)
Over the years, the Canons of the Diocese of North Carolina became increasingly difficult to comprehend and apply. The canons were not arranged in a logical order. For example, provisions of the canons relevant to the vestry of a church were scattered throughout the published canons. Fractional numbers of new canons had been used to avoid resequencing the canons, which was a daunting undertaking because of the large number of cross-references to be corrected. Some canons contained obsolete provisions of a transitional nature. Other canons had sections or paragraphs that dealt with matters that would be more clearly described in a separate canon.
The net effect is that most persons in the Diocese who consulted the canons found them to be impenetrable and obscure. Even the persons in the Diocese who consult the canons weekly – the bishops, the officers, and ourselves as the Commission on Constitution and Canons – often found it difficult to identify the canons of particular interest in a given situation.
Until the adoption of Canon 12.2(c) by the 203rd Convention in 2018, the only mechanisms available to remedy these problems were a complete replacement of the canons by Convention or a massive set of amendments. Neither mechanism was considered feasible, and therefore the problems in the published canons continued to accrue. However, Canon 12.2(c) empowered the Commission on Constitution and Canons to make technical corrections.
After months of painstaking work, we are pleased to offer for your review and comment a new edition of the Canons of the Diocese.
At first, you will notice a new structure for the canons:
- The number of each canon is prefixed by the letter D to denote a canon of the Diocese. The numbers of the canons of the General Convention have no prefix. This eliminates ambiguity as to whether a given canon is a Canon of the Diocese or a Canon of the General Convention. Everything we do in the Diocese is subject to the Canons of the General Convention.
- The canons are grouped into in seven titles, so that all canons relevant to a given topic are found in the corresponding title. The titles are:
- Title D-I, Convention.
- Title D-II, Officers.
- Title D-III, Permanent Bodies. This Title describes the Standing Committee, the Trustees, the Diocesan Council, etc.
- Title D-IV, Finances.
- Title D-V, Congregations.
- Title D-VI, Ecclesiastical Discipline.
- Title D-VII, Administration.
To implement the new structure, there is considerable rearrangement of the sequence of the canons. In a few instances, sentences or paragraphs were transferred from one canon to another or to a new canon.
Other corrections incorporated into the new edition:
- Transitional language no longer relevant to the Diocese was deleted. A typical transitional provision was to implement staggered terms of office 20 years ago. Now that the staggered terms have been in effect for so long, the transitional language served no purpose.
- Sections and paragraphs of some canons were resequenced within the respective canon to provide a more logical flow.
- Content that was haphazardly spread across multiple canons was collected into a single place. For example, all provisions of the Canons that granted seat and voice at Convention to certain persons ex officio are transferred to a new Canon D-I.9.
- Titles of some canons were modified to reflect more accurately the content of the respective canons.
- All internal cross-references within the canons were corrected to conform to the new structure.
- We found that a canonical amendment adopted by the 195th Convention in 2011 had not been accurately captured in the master document of the canons. This oversight created ambiguity about the membership of the Disciplinary Board. By consulting the Journal of the 195th Convention, we have corrected the text of the relevant canon.
- Various references to our church are standardized as “The Episcopal Church”.
- Various references to the canons of our church are standardized as “Canons of the General Convention.”
In order to ease the transition from the old structure of the canons to the new structure, the Table of Contents of the new edition contains references to the former numbers of the canons. The new Table of Contents may be found in the Appendix below.
We, the Commission on Constitution and Canons were careful to stay within the limits of the authority granted to us by what is now Canon D-III.7.3(c). Amending the canons remains the purview of the Convention alone. Also, this process of canonical editing did not extend to the Constitution of the Diocese. The only way that even “one iota” of the Constitution may be changed is for two successive Conventions, each voting by orders, to adopt an amendment. However, it is our opinion that the compact nature of the Constitution and the infrequency of amendments to it, compared to amendments to the Canons, has allowed the Constitution to remain readable.
Before adopting the new edition later this summer, we offer it to the entire Diocese for comment. Please email your comments to [email protected].
Thank you, and we hope that this new edition of the Canons of the Diocese will serve us well.
- The Commission on Constitution and Canons
CANONS OF THE DIOCESE OF NORTH CAROLINA
Table of Contents
Title D-I. Convention.
D-I.1 Members of Convention (former Canon 1, Sections 1-3).
D-I.2Campus Ministry Delegates (former Canon 1, Section 4).
D-I.3 Youth Delegates (former Canon 44).
D-I.4 Presiding Officer (former Canon 4).
D-I.5 Worship at Convention (former Canon 2).
D-I.6Rules of Order (former Canon 3).
D-I.7 Conduct of Conventions by Remote Technology (former Canon 1.1).
D-I.8Convention Committees (former Canon 13).
D-I.9Seat and Voice at Convention (provisions of former Canons 5, 6, 7, and 13).
Title D-II. Officers.
D-II.1Secretary (former Canon 5).
D-II.2 Treasurer (former Canon 6).
D-II.3Chancellor (former Canon 7).
D-II.4Historiographer (former Canon 8).
D-II.5Continuation in Office (former Canon 4.1).
Title D-III. Permanent Bodies.
D-III.1Standing Committee (former Canon 9).
D-III.2Trustees (former Canon 10).
D-III.3Diocesan Council (former Canon 15).
D-III.4Deputies to the General Convention (former Canon 34).
D-III.5Deputies to the Synod of the Fourth Province (former Canon 35).
D-III.6Convocations (former Canon 19).
D-III.7Commission on Constitution and Canons (former Canon 12).
D-III.8Commission on Ministry (former Canon 32).
D-III.9Historic Properties (former Canon 45).
D-III.10Disciplinary Board (former Canon 31, Sections 2.01-2.05).
D-III.11Murdoch Memorial Society (former Canon 37).
D-III.12Trustees of the University of the South (former Canon 43).
D-III.13Mission Endowment Board (former Canon 18.1, Section 3).
D-III.14Fair Share Appeals Board (former Canon 18, Section 5).
Title D-IV. Finances.
D-IV.1Salaries, Compensation, and Expenses (former Canon 14).
D-IV.2Business Methods in Church Affairs (former Canon 17).
D-IV.3Disposition of Tangible Personal Property (former Canon 11).
D-IV.4Mission and Ministry of the Diocese (former Canon 18, Sections 1-4 and 6-9).
D-IV.5Collections and Offerings (former Canon 28).
D-IV.6Permanent Endowment for Mission (former Canon 18.1 Sections 1, 2, and 4).
D-IV.7Permanent Episcopal and Missionary Funds (former Canon 38).
D-IV.8Church Pension Fund (former Canon 36).
Title D-V. Congregations.
D-V.1Missions (former Canon 20).
D-V.2Organization of Parishes (former Canon 21).
D-V.3Clusters (former Canon 46).
D-V.4Meetings, Vestries, and Wardens of Parishes (former Canon 22).
D-V.5Legal Powers of a Parish Vestry (former Canon 23).
D-V.6Junior or Associate Vestry (former Canon 24).
D-V.7Filling Vacant Cures (former Canon 26).
D-V.8Definitions, Registers, and Reports (former Canon 30).
D-V.9Consecration of Churches, Chapels or Other Buildings (former Canon 39).
D-V.10Memorials (former Canon 27).
D-V.11Pastoral Mediation (former Canon 41).
D-V.12Dissolution of the Pastoral Relation (former Canon 42).
D-V.13Status of Parishes and Missions (former Canon 25).
Title D-VI. Ecclesiastical Discpline.
D-VI.1Title IV of the Canons of the General Convention (former Canon 31, Section 1).
D-VI.2Disciplinary Board Operations (former Canon 31, Sections 2.06-2.13).
D-VI.3Costs and Expenses in Disciplinary Matters (former Canon 31, Section 3).
D-VI.4Records in Disciplinary Matters (former Canon 31, Section 4).
Title D-VII. Administration.
D-VII.1Suffragan Bishop May Act as Ecclesiastical Authority (former Canon 40).
D-VII.2Chartered Committees (former Canon 16).
D-VII.3Definition of Certain Terms (former Canon 47).
D-VII.4Conduct of Meetings and Voting by Remote Technology (former Canon 33).
