In the 3rd post, I talked about how collegiality and national episcopal conferences were the promotion of ecuмenism with the Eastern Orthodox. I was doing some random research (I do this a lot) and figured out how Vatican II's episcopal conference system looks a lot like how a certain Protestant "church" governs their "ecclesial community." This is the Anglican Communion.
Here is
Wikipedia:
The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches.
Almost like how the Catholic Church is the
universal Church now governed by national episcopal conferences.There is no single "Anglican Church" with universal juridical authority as each national or regional church has full autonomy.
The Pope is losing his universal juridical authority over the Church and power is being shifted to the conferences. There is no longer a universal Latin Mass that is regulated by the Holy See, but thousands of vernacular Masses that are regulated by the conference thereof.
As the name suggests, the Anglican Communion is an association of these churches in full communion with the Church of England (which may be regarded as the mother church of the worldwide communion) and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
These conferences are in full communion with the Church of Rome, specifically with the Pope. This is now the only purpose of the Pope: to be a symbol of the Church's unity. This is how the Archbishop of Canterbury is seen in this communion.
Each church has its own doctrine and liturgy, based in most cases on that of the Church of England; and each church has its own legislative process and overall episcopal polity, under the leadership of a local primate.
Each conference has it's own teachings (the Canadian Conference on birth control: Winnipeg Statement) and, as said earlier, has it's own liturgy based on Rome's Novus Ordo. They are all run differently, usually as a democracy though, under the leadership of the elected president of the conference (Archbishop Timothy Dolan in the USCCB)
The Archbishop of Canterbury, religious head of the Church of England, has no formal authority outside that jurisdiction, but is recognised as symbolic head of the worldwide communion.
The Pope has almost no authority anymore outside of his See or maybe Italian conference and, as said earlier, only a symbolic head and unity of the Catholic Church.
Among the other primates, he is considered as primus inter pares, which translates as "first among equals".
This is very similar in the Orthodox collegiality view of the Pope. He is first "symbolically" among the other presidents and councils and is equal to them, therefore giving him no authority.
All 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion are independent, each with its own primate and governing structure.
As said before with a presider over a conference which independently makes it's own rules (liturgy, beliefs, abstinence/fasting laws, etc.)
These provinces may take the form of national churches (such as in Canada, Uganda, or Japan) or a collection of nations (such as the West Indies, Central Africa, or Southeast Asia).
National episcopal conferences (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, or Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference)
or a collection of national conferences (Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, or Council of European Bishops' Conferences).
The Catholic Church has already been governed like the Eastern Orthodox Churches, but in the Eastern Catholic Churches. To go along with everything else I've learned about Vatican II's ecuмenism, that it is to Protestantize the Church, I think it would be better to say that Vatican II's collegiality is based on the Anglican Communion.