Have you got the keys?

As I understand it, according to the BCP and the canons, in the dear old C of E, the presbyter has the power of the keys. He is to excommunicate gross notorious unrepentant sinners.

But he must notify the diocesan bishop who must give an opportunity for an interview and who may then give a ruling which the presbyter is to follow. The Bishop has a master or skeleton key.

Has the presbyter lost the power of the keys? Is this a good, right or acceptable system?

Texts on the power of the keys (and excommunication) most welcome too.

Form for Excommunications

Calvin's Form for celebrating the Lord's Supper includes the following general excommunication:

We have heard, brethren, how our Lord makes his Supper among his disciples, and thereby shows that strangers - in other words, those who are not of the company of the faithful - ought not to be admitted. Wherefore, in accordance with this rule, in the name and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, I excommunicate all idolaters, blasphemers, despisers of God, heretics, and all who form sects apart to break the unity of the Church, all perjurers, all who are rebellious to parents and to their superiors, all who are seditious, mutinous, quarrelsome, injurious, all adulterers, fornicators, thieves, misers, ravishers, drunkards, gluttons, and all who lead a scandalous life; declaring to them that they must abstain from this holy table, for fear of polluting and contaminating the sacred viands which our Lord Jesus Christ gives only to his household and believers.

Calvin's Tracts, vol 2, trans. Beveridge p120


The BCP also directs the curate that "Briefs, Citations and Excommunications" should be read after the Creed and before the Offertory in the Communion service.