You can obtain here the full text of the constitution of TTAC. Some readers will be aware that a different constitution was adopted in 2005, with a view to seeking recognition as a Charity. Changes in charity law have since made it doubtful whether this is appropriate. More important, it has been recognised that certain formalities relating to constitutional changes within constituent bodies of the Traditional Anglican Communion were inadvertantly not followed in 2005. Consequently, it seems safer as a matter of ecclesiastical law to treat the original constitution as remaining in force. TTAC will continue to seek an appropriate way forward.
A key text for understanding the ethos of the Continuing Anglican churches generally is the Affirmation of St. Louis. It is a useful reminder that Continuing Anglicanism generally, and not least the Traditional Anglican Communion, is not a narrow rejection of the ordination of women but a response to a much wider departure from classical Anglicanism.
There are references to the Chicago/Lambeth Quadrilateral. The two forms of this reunion initiative are remarkable for their total failure to achieve any reunion of the churches, and also for their concentration on externals over substance. What they assert to be necessary is indeed necessary, yet they are a witness to what was already wrong with Anglicanism over a century before the catastrophe.
TTAC is part of the Traditional Anglican Communion, and so the Concordat of that body is also important. This is a thoughtful attempt to restore something of the balance of relationships that existed in the Early Church at its best.
Nobody should imagine that documents make a church. They are no substitute for faithfulness to God; they are no proof of such faithfulness. Nevertheless, they are evidence of the ethos of the Traditional Anglican Church and its fellows.
