What is Alternative Primatial Oversight (APO)?
APO means pastoral care and oversight that would normally be offered by one’s own provincial Archbishop or Presiding Bishop, but sought in another Primate or Archbishop in the Anglican Communion. The term emerged at the conclusion of the 2006 General Convention of The Episcopal Church as several orthodox dioceses dissatisfied with the direction of the Church, but desiring to maintain ties to the Anglican Communion, made requests for some type of APO arrangement. Most dioceses made the request primarily in response to the election of the new Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, whose theological views are in direct contrast to biblical Christian teaching. Obtaining APO would mean that the alternative archbishop would carry out ordinations, consecrations, pastoral visits, etc., and the Archbishop or Presiding Bishop of that region would be, for all practical purposes, absent from that diocese.
