From a Website I chanced upon...

http://www.aifw.org/journal/2003jul09.shtm

The path of Roman Catholic and Anglican Unity The British Association of Interchurch Families was delighted to have Bishop Crispian Hollis, Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth and a member of the new International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM), as its fourth John Coventry Memorial Lecturer in March 2003. He spoke under the title: The Mississauga Initiative and its significance for the path of Roman Catholic and Anglican Unity. Dr Mary Tanner chaired the lecture. Three years ago she gave the Second John Coventry Memorial Lecture, at a time when she was preparing for her role as consultant to the Mississauga (Toronto) meeting of Anglican Primates and Presidents of Catholic Episcopal Conferences that took place in May 2000 (see Interchurch Families, 8,2 Summer 2000 pp.10-13).

Interchurch families were encouraged to find themselves referred to twice in the report of the Mississauga meeting, First, in the statement ‘Communion in Mission’: Though interchurch families can be signs of unity and hope, one pressing concern has to do with addressing the need to provide joint pastoral care for them. Sometimes those in interchurch families experience great pain, particularly in the area of eucharistic life.

Second, in the ‘Action Plan’ to implement ‘Communion in Mission’; the IARCCUM mandate includes the direction: To examine the range of possible ways, within current canon law provisions, to deal generously and pastorally with situations of interchurch marriages involving Anglicans and Roman Catholics.

We were glad to learn from Bishop Hollis of the working of the section of IARCCUM based on England (preparing the Joint Declaration of Faith). Since the three sections are working independently at present it was not possible to have news of the progress of the others (the ‘reception’ group based in Australia and the ‘practical outcomes’ group in the United States). Interchurch families will particularly hope that IARCCUM will not only take account of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC)’s agreements in faith, but will also take account of the work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission on the Theology of Marriage and its Application to Mixed Marriages. This body was set up in 1967 alongside the Preparatory Commission that produced the Malta Report of 1968, and produced its own report, Anglican-Roman Catholic Marriage, in 1975. There are valuable recommendations in it that have not yet been implemented.

Here we have shortened the text of Bishop Hollis’ John Coventry Memorial Lecture. It will be printed in full in One in Christ, as was Mary Tanner’s 2000 lecture (see OIC, 36, 2000 no.2, pp.126-32).

Introduction In my experience, communities and organisations often define themselves almost unconsciously by the ways in which they describe their view of the environment in which they live and work. The Association of Interchurch Families is no exception. I was particularly struck by the following words in the Preparatory paper, which is part of the documentation for your Congress in Rome later this year.

Interchurch families are by definition bridge-builders. They are concerned not to cause scandal (in the deepest sense of turning others from the way of faith), but to work in harmony with the ministers and congregations where they worship, in response to Christ's prayer that they all may be one. They often find themselves therefore in the tension between the 'already' of the unity of their domestic church and the 'not yet' of the continuing separation of the two church communities of which they are members. (Interchurch Families, 11,1 January 2003 p.3)

You see yourselves, rightly in my view, at the cutting edge of the ecumenical enterprise. You are driven by a holy impatience while, at the same time, living and experiencing in your own hearts that longing for unity, a unity that deeply respects and values what the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sachs describes as ‘the dignity of difference’.

John Coventry SJ: a prophet I am delighted to be with you today and I feel especially honoured that you should have invited me to give this Fourth John Coventry Memorial Lecture.

I did not know John well but I knew enough about him to know and appreciate what a significant contribution he made to the ecumenical debate in these islands and beyond, and I know, of course, of his particular commitment to the work of your Association.

Some may have been tempted to think him something of a maverick or ‘loose cannon’. I prefer to think of him as something of a prophet. He was always deeply immersed in the Catholic tradition and he always called us to be faithful to our traditions and to our roots. At the same time, he probed and challenged all who would listen to question any interpretation of our tradition, which simply locked us into the past. He was a constant searcher for new and creative ways of recognising the fundamentals of our Christian faith, so many of which we share today.

I believe that he would have warmly welcomed the Mississauga initiative of which I speak to you today. He would have rejoiced to hear of what has been proposed. I suspect he would have badgered, pestered and challenged us to implement the hopes and proposals as fully and as quickly as we could.

Malta and Mississauga Much of what Mississauga advocates is already to be found in the official record of the first post-Conciliar dialogue which took place between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church and which comes to us in the so-called Malta Report of 1968. And this, of course, did not come out of the blue but was a direct consequence of the Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism and a historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1966. Subsequent meetings of an Anglican-Roman Catholic Joint Preparatory Commission took place in 1967, which in turn led to the Malta Report of 1968.

We are still struggling with many of its recommendations, but perhaps the most important outcome of Malta 1968 was the definitive establishment of the ARCIC process of dialogue between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, a dialogue which has achieved much and which is still ongoing today.

If Malta outlined a future agenda, Mississauga has been able to draw on those forty rich years of growth, which have flowed from the initiatives it proposed. Like Malta, Mississauga is looking to the future but it does so in the light of much common endeavour, common prayer and richly developed and good relationships.

Mississauga 2000 The Mississauga meeting took place in 2000 and was convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinal Cassidy, then President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Cardinal Walter Kasper, the current President of the Pontifical Council, was also present.

Mississauga is near Toronto in Canada and the gathering was made up of Anglican and Roman Catholic Bishops, paired and from 13 different countries. The meeting, as the official report describes it, ‘was grounded in prayer and marked by a profound atmosphere of friendship and spiritual communion.’ (‘Communion in Mission’, The Mississauga Report, no.3) It was not my privilege to be a participant in the meeting but many of those with whom I am now involved in dialogue were, and it is clear that this occasion was both very moving for all who took part and full of significance for the future.

The final communiqué spells out the way ahead. ‘We believe that now is the appropriate time for the authorities of our two communions to recognise and endorse this new stage through the signing of a Joint Declaration of Agreement. This agreement would set out: our shared goal of visible unity; an acknowledgement of the consensus of faith we have reached, and a fresh commitment to share together in common life and witness. Our two Communions would be invited to celebrate this Agreement around the world.’ (no.10)

IARCCUM’s three tasks The recommendations that followed the final statement are now in process of being implemented. They include the establishment of a Joint Commission, of which I am now a member and which has given the world a new ecumenical acronym – IARCCUM – the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission. The work of this Commission is ‘to oversee the preparation of the Joint Declaration of Agreement, and promote and monitor the reception of the ARCIC agreements, as well as facilitate the development of strategies for translating the degree of spiritual communion that has been achieved into visible and practical outcomes’.

The IARCCUM Commission is made up mainly of Bishops drawn from both Communions and appointed by the central authorities of both Communions. The co-chairs are Archbishop John Bathersby, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, and Bishop David Beetge, the Anglican Bishop of the Highveld in South Africa. There are four more Bishops on each side and they represent the worldwide nature of both communions, coming as they do from Australia, Nigeria, Hong Kong, the United States, Ireland and England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is represented as is also the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and there are expert theological consultants from both sides. Two women are included.

The first meeting took place in November 2001. It started with a day of prayer at Lambeth Palace, combining with a meeting with Archbishop George Carey, after which we transferred to Rome to begin our discussions and meet with Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Kasper.

The Commission met again in November 2002, appropriately in Malta, where we lodged in the same Retreat House – Mount St Joseph's – that hosted the meeting that produced the Malta Report of 1968.

Work in three groups In line with the mandate we were given by Mississauga, our work divides in three ways and we are grouped into three sub-commissions. The Malta meeting saw the work of those three sub-commissions beginning to emerge and take shape.

One group, of which I am a member is concerning itself with the drafting of the Joint Declaration of Agreement – we were particularly helped and encouraged by the assiduous and penetrating comments on our first draft by Cardinal Kasper who attended the Malta meeting for a couple of days.

The second group is concerned with the reception, promotion and monitoring of the existing ARCIC documents and is responding to the feeling within the Commission that the focus at this stage should be on growth in mutual understanding and study, rather than the process of formal response.

The third sub-group concentrates on visible and practical outcomes of spiritual communion with proposals for pastoral and practical strategies to help both Communions in the present stage of real but imperfect communion. This group also gives special attention to the question of Anglican-Roman Catholic relations in Africa where there are large numbers of both denominations.

It is clear from what has been said to us by both Communions that IARCCUM is not a permanent Commission, at least not in its present form. It has a particular mandate, which I have already outlined, and we have given ourselves a provisional timetable. As you will understand, much of the work goes on outside the plenary meetings, and all the sub-groups will hope to make substantial reports at the next plenary in Ireland in June 2003. The meeting after that will be held in Hong Kong in February 2004.

The timetable for the Joint Declaration of Agreement Hopefully, the summer's work will produce a final draft of the Joint Declaration, which will need further fine tuning and further group meetings. Our dearest wish is that the final version will be ready for the Hong Kong meeting in February 2004. No doubt further fine-tuning will be required but we hope to have a document to present to both Communions for informal consultation by Easter of 2004. Once further revisions have been made, the final Joint Declaration will be formally presented to the highest consultative processes of both Communions. We have always kept the Lambeth Conference of 2008 as a very significant date and, who knows, that Conference might see the formal acceptance of the Joint Declaration, followed by its signing and celebration at the highest level within the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.

We are under no illusions that the way to achieving and completing our mandate will be anything but slow and demanding. We hope to produce quite precise expressions of agreement in major matters that we hold in common, but, at the same time, we will need to acknowledge those areas where there is still considerable work to be done.

Reception The group working on the promotion and study of the already agreed statements of ARCIC I and II, is also facing a daunting task. It was noted that the experience of many of the bishops, who met at Mississauga, was that they were quite unfamiliar with the work of ARCIC and its achievements. If that is true for bishops, how much more will it be true for the faithful of both communions? ‘Reception’ will therefore be a major challenge if the eventual Joint Declaration is to be rooted in the life and practice of the Christian people who form our Communions.

Spiritual communion The whole process has to be accompanied by prayer because that goes hand in hand with the ongoing search for doctrinal unity. Ecumenical awareness and activity cannot be separated from prayer and ongoing conversion. It is difficult, therefore, to exaggerate the importance of the work of our third working group. As Cardinal Kasper has written, ‘pre-eminence among all ecumenical activities belongs to spiritual ecumenism’. If the pace of the ecumenical movement seems to some to have slowed down, then it may be because we have ceased to hold on to the priority of prayer in our work of dialogue. The Cardinal writes, ‘we can say that it is not more ecumenical activism and action that is required but more ecumenical spirituality’. (Priests and People, January 2003 p.8)

He goes on: ‘We need new ecumenical enthusiasm. This does not mean devising unrealistic utopias of the future. Patience is the little sister of Christian hope. Instead of staring at the impossible and chafing against it, we have to live the already given and possible communion, and do what is possible today. By advancing in this way, step-by-step, with the help of God's Spirit, who is always ready with surprises, we will find the way towards a better future. In this sense, we hear again the Lord's invitation: Put out into deep waters! (Luke 5:4)’.

The way ahead Malta came at the beginning of the formal ecumenical process between our two Communions; Mississauga comes on the back of and as a result of the considerable work of ARCIC I and II. As a result of that process of dialogue – not yet finished – substantial agreement has been reached in crucial areas, such as the Eucharist, Ministry, Authority, the Moral Life, Justification and, still in the discussion and drafting stage, the place of Mary in our respective traditions.

The Joint Declaration is going to be an important marker on our ecumenical journey, but we do not have to wait until it is signed and received by our Churches. Work can begin, or continue to flourish where it has already begun.

Mississauga calls for joint meetings between bishops, for common prayer, for concerted joint initiatives in the world of social action, justice and peace. We have a common view of the rights and dignity of the human person and we are united in the many areas of challenge that face us in public life today.

It is not, therefore, a question of waiting for the Declaration to begin this process of convergence. The process is already at work and is moving forward. It now needs new impetus, new enthusiasm and new life. The following up and implementation of the work of Mississauga is what we need now to move us forward.

We have a vision of what can be; we know, without a shadow of doubt, what is the Lord's prayer for the company of His disciples; we hear his call to us to be one. Mississauga challenges both our Communions to renew our trust in God ‘whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to Him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.’ (Eph.3:20-21)

Conclusion It has been an enormous privilege for me to be involved in this crucial dialogue between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church. I was not part of the Mississauga process but the enthusiasm and commitment that flowed from that meeting has made its way very significantly into IARCCUM and it is infectious! I am optimistic about the outcome of our dialogue and I believe that, in God's time – perhaps not ours – the unity for which the Lord prayed so earnestly will come to pass.

When that day comes, many like yourselves, who live in the midst of all the tensions and promise of the ecumenical journey, will be seen to have played a very important part. You, who have committed your Christian lives and work to the achieving of the unity of Christ's Church, will be richly rewarded. Never lose heart because the Lord is on our side and ‘if God is for us, who can be against us?’ (Rom.8:31)

-- B ZAROVE (ZAROFF3@JUNO.COM), October 10, 2004

Answers

Is Unity Possible?

-- ZAROVE (ZAROFF3@JUNO.COM), October 10, 2004.

Considering the current state of the Anglican / Episcopal church I think unity is impossible.

-- Jack Sammon (romanrite@aol.com), October 11, 2004.

We must first seek unity with the Orthodox, with whom we almost have entire sacramental and doctrinal unity already. They are the other lung of the Church as our Holy Father said.

Although Aglicans appear more Catholic than Rome, it is similar bells and smells; however doctinally and sacramentally, we are as far from them as we are from Presbyterians!

Oh....and yes, musn't forget about the Traditionalists such as SSPX. They are up there with the Orthodox. Lot of work to be done before any unity with Anglicans me thinks.

Hugh

-- Hugh (hugh@inspired.com), October 14, 2004.

Perhaps we should change our mindset.

It's easy for each church member to become eliteist. "My church is better than your church!".

At the top theological levels, the Christian thinkers are moving closer together.

I'm encouraged.

God bless,

-- john placette (jplacette@catholic.org), October 14, 2004.

I would encourage everyone to read Avery Cardinal Dulles' book, "Models the Church".(Models of the Church, 2nd Edition, Dublin: Gill and MacMillan, 1988).

God bless

-- john placette (jplacette@catholic.org), October 14, 2004.

It's easy for each church member to become eliteist. "My church is better than your church!".

What about "our Church is THE church", or have we to water down that article of faith in order to appease the protestants?

-- Hugh (hugh@inspired.com), October 15, 2004.