This means that the person who is being consecrated must be someone who
will be able to uphold the Apostolic teaching, act as a focus for unity
within the local church and link the local church to the wider Church of
which it is a part. If it is known in advance that someone would be
unable to fulfill these criteria then it would be impossible for those
consecrating to act with the intention that they should do so. As a
consequence the consecration would be invalid due to what is known as a
"defect of intention" and the person consecrated could not be regarded
as a bishop....

It follows that although the form of Canon Robinson's consecration was
canonical since he was appointed according to the constitution of the
Episcopal Church (USA) and consecrated by three bishops with the consent
of the Metropolitan, there must have been a defect of intention since
those consecrating could not have been acting with the reasonable
expectation that they were consecrating someone who could act as a
bishop of the Catholic Church. It follows that the consecration should
be regarded as invalid and that the see of New Hampshire should be
regarded as vacant.

Recognition that Canon Robinson was never properly consecrated suggests
a possible way forward out of the crisis currently facing the Anglican
Communion because of the actions of the Episcopal Church (USA).

First of all it means that Canon Robinson could not be invited to the
Lambeth Conference in 2008 since he is not a bishop and this would avoid
the problems that an invitation to him would raise.

Secondly, with the agreement of the other Primates of the Anglican
Communion, the Episcopal Church (USA) could be invited by the Archbishop
of Canterbury to fill the see of New Hampshire with an acceptable bishop
and to censure those bishops who were involved in his consecration on
the grounds that they took part in a consecration that they must have
known was invalid.

Failure to take this action within an agreed time frame could then be
regarded as a sign that the Episcopal Church (USA) no longer regarded
itself as part of the Anglican Communion. The reasons would be that the
Episcopal Church had taken action that it knew would lead to a breaking
of communion with other churches of the Communion and had refused to
rectify the situation when given the opportunity to do so, and that it
had refused to take notice of decisions agreed collectively by the
bishops of the Communion both at the Lambeth Conference 1998 and at
subsequent Primates' meetings....

If it was considered that the Episcopal Church (USA) had repudiated its
Anglican identity, the way would then be open for the Communion, through
the Primates' meeting, to ask the Archbishop of Canterbury to
re-establish the Anglican Church in the United States by appointing
bishops to form the nucleus of new church [sic] that was part of the
Communion.

END