and all doings of the Word together, by the authority of Christ as represented by our one Diocese.

While the form TACA uses is truly Anglican (both high and low church), Fellowship and Communion are encouraged as true Ecumenism between TACA churches and other traditionalist denominations. Sustaining this ecclesiastical apparatus is the Archbishop and his House of Bishops, men, who, being set apart in Christian virtue, ability, and wisdom, therefore rule by the “Custom and Subsidiarity” doctrine that validates and empowers able ministers to lead their parishes with dignity, courage, and strength.

From the Preamble to the Constitution and Canons of Traditional Anglican Church of America (Part II):

Our Archbishop employs as his Unilateral Rule the principle of Subsidiarity and Custom, by which he accords basic autonomy for every Congregation and Mission throughout his Diocese.

It is through this Archiepiscopi Unilateralis [Μονομερής Αρχιεπίσκοπος] that he ensures that matters are handled per locality, that is, “customarily decided,” Solet Arbitrium [Συνηθισμένη Επιλογή], per the “supplied authority” (suppleam auctoritate [Συμπληρωματική Αρχή]) at the local Parish or Mission level.

We, Traditional Anglican Church of America (TACA), are thus a church of ancient Custom and Subsidiarity (see Article III, Section A, of this Constitution).

Our Clergy and Episcopate are working-class and executive men, married and unmarried, with and without children, civic-minded and religious, homesteaders and urban dwellers, but all always studious men who elect, from among our wise assembly, an honorable and blessed Archbishop, a very great man whose decisions are sovereign in all ecclesiastical matters. As of the Synod of May 2026, the head of TACA is still Archbishop/Primate Rick Aaron Reid.

As God’s ministers, we must endure the reality of Christs message to the Church: “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (John 14:29-30). We do have the Bible; it is sufficient for these latter days, because its inspired teachings are profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16-17). What more do we need then? Christ, who said, “be ye perfect, even as your Father is perfect” (John 16:33; Matthew 5:48), has indeed overcome the world so that we can be perfect indeed. Therefore, why would we as deacons, priests, bishops, archbishops, ministers, and faithful parishioners of this TACA Diocese need a Constitution and Canons, if all we need is the Bible? The rationale for such need will be explained in the following paragraphs.

The Archbishop’s traditional and charitable intention is that each Parish should hold sway over itself, in a meritorious practicing of subsidiarity, as it is his customary means of consigning governance to able men. We work to support ourselves, as did the saints: Paul of Tarsus, as well as the married couple Aquila and Priscilla, made tents for pay; the people of the Church of Thessaloniki were advised to hold down jobs. As 2 Thessalonians 3:10 exhorts, “If any would not work, neither should he eat.”

All broader decisions concerning the Diocese at large are thus customarily made with the Archbishop, himself a noble man of rigors, acting as presider, always in respectful and discreet consultation with his morally mature, hard-working ministers—men who have lived good Christian lives as family-minded leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, and statesmen, standing in allegiance to his Office (John 19:11). He invokes all votes and choices; his approval ratifies all decisions and actions derived by himself, and by these bishops, presbyters, and their houses, in harmony (Joel 2:11; 1 Timothy 4:14). The Constitution and Canons stand at ready reserve, thereby, as an aid to these good men, in regard to their senior member’s sharing of episcopal sovereignty with lower elders, “since the bishop sits in the place of God” (Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Magnesians, Chapters 6:1, 13:1-2; Epistle to the Trallians, Chapter 2:1-3; Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, Chapter 8:1-2).

Since the earliest days of our ecclesiastical existence, this easy but prolific means of governance, by Custom and Subsidiarity, has defined our Common Choice—our Solet Arbitrium—of rule, that is, that the Archbishop, like his TACA predecessors, has always carefully ordained and consecrated morally upright men, brilliant Christian leaders, who can be entrusted to preserve this precious juridical simplicity. A King David must “wait, I say, on the Lord” and must patiently “be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart” (Psalm 27:14).

During various times of momentous growth, prosperity, and tranquility, or even of trouble and tumult, the Archbishop may comfortably alternately proffer the Constitution and Canons as an extension of his sagacious generosity. His office sees his soul, like King David’s, patiently abiding the via media Custom of Church rule, which magnanimously permits each parish to select for itself—according to the needs and desires of its faithful, in unity with the parish priest—Reformist, Orthodox, or Anglo-Catholic varietals of Traditional Anglicanism.

Church of England priest Richard Hooker, one of the most influential theologians of the sixteenth century and arguably one of the fathers of Traditional Anglicanism as we know it today, noted that “Law rests in the bosom of God, her Voice the harmony of all the World,” determining the constituents of both Divine and Natural Law to be “both Angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy” (Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie; Book I. Chapter 16; Hooker, Richard; 1594). Saint Peter the Apostle—despite his initial cowardice that caused him to deny his Lord (Matthew 26:34,75)—projects such a patient courage that Jesus predicts his redemptive Faith, the latticework of Petrus, a future Archbishop of Antioch and then Rome, such a shepherd whose Sacred Tradition may be bound or loosed in Heaven (Matthew 16:15-19).

By this token, Custom and Subsidiarity reflect the Sacred Tradition passed down from the Apostles. Informed by Sacred Tradition, the Constitution and Canons are the intermediary framework bridging the staff of the Bishop’s rook and the rock of the Church, which is his humble duty to shepherd. The Constitution and Canons, then, are a written instrument of the Traditional Anglican Christian Faith, the foundation for which was laid by the hands of generations of shepherds who came before, and the responsibility for which now rests upon our Archbishop’s humble, courageous, patient head (1 Timothy 4:14, Psalm 27:14).

There is no need, except in their role as a constant semantic resource, that these present goodly articles and strictures, these very Constitution and Canons, ought to be consulted in every given decision; instead, they are available, as needed, to guide the refinement of choices and decisions in matters involving this TACA Diocese. For this work to become worthy of this role, it was necessary for the writer to have received direct and careful consultation with his brethren, the esteemed Episcopate and Clergy of TACA—godly men who astutely exemplify the daily rule of moderateness—and who have expressed the desire for this supplemental resource, so that it can be accessed whenever needed. The writer was both inspired and guided by their good example and guidance. However, this writing could not have come into being had it not been commissioned and desired by the Archbishop himself, by whose authority the Constitution and Canons were able to move forward and take shape.

Aided by this document, all loyal TACA ministers, staff members, officers, and parishioners—in addition to the Episcopate and Clergy—may maintain a firmer grasp of the Archbishop’s authority and benefit from his delegation of leadership (Acts 20:17-38).

Moreover, as Saint Ignatius of Antioch advised, “Let nothing exist among you that may divide you; but be united with your bishop, and those that preside over you, as a type and evidence of your immortality” (Epistle to the Magnesians, Chapter 6). Likewise, as it says in the book of Hebrews, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you” (Hebrews 13:17).

No letter of the law other than the Holy Bible, as it is fulfilled by Jesus Christ, can supersede the authority of our incomparable Archbishop, a rightful man, who has deigned to allow the Constitution and Canons to be to be formulated and practiced. Having been commissioned by our Archbishop and approved by his authority to be used in all parishes within these TACA Diocese, these Articles, Canons, and other written works within the pages of this volume are always subject to his re-implementation and/or revision, however momentously or rigorously executed by him, preserved or amended, while his intentions and all of their semantics must always be in concordance with Sacred Scripture, being that he is our senior interpreter of the Bible and the agent who has authorized and approved the ratification and publication of this work.

The Archbishop may thus, at his discretion, elect to preserve, engage, and/or suspend any rule or directive that could be invoked here—exercising his right as Archiepiscopi Unilateralis—reverting in whatever manner he sees fit back to pure Anglican tradition, and/or to our most favored Customary.

A Bishop so faithful and ready to see God that he insisted that lions eat him, Ignatius of Antioch instructs us all on the importance of honoring the Bishop as a means of honoring God: “Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Chris is, there is the catholic [katolicos, universal] Church. It is not lawful to baptize or give communion without the consent of the bishop. On the other hand, whatever has his approval is pleasing to God. Thus, whatever is done will be safe and valid” (Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, Chapter 8, J.R. Willis transl.). With the Bishop, therefore, stands the unity, the katolicos, of the Universal Church.

The Constitution and Canons are thus presented to supplement that conventional ancient governance and delegation of duty throughout our Jurisdiction, of our most outstanding, faithful, wise patriarch of Christ, our very learned, pious, and kindly Archbishop, as this Archbishop oversees the unparalleled labor of his Episcopate of dutiful, exceptional shepherds of God; as this Archbishop and these knowledgeable Bishops together manage the Priesthood and the Permanent Diaconate of prudent, sensible, devout clerics; and as this superb Patriarch and his Episcopate and Clergy together guide all the godly ministers, officers, and parishioners of all of our eminent parishes, ministries, missions, deaneries, schools, and diocesan regions—all of these Christians and Offices humbly serving in their respective capacities to apply their Christian discernment, charity, and prayerful integrity to the edification of all who come in contact with them by the grace of God.