Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue ~ IARCCUM.org

Anglican Communion starts ‘long process of resolution’

The Anglican Communion is moving “from a season of raw and antagonistic division to one of reckoning with what will likely be a long process of resolution”, the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) has said.

The body met in Kuala Lumpur from 6 to 12 December, and released a communiqué on 18 December in which it wrote that members had “wrestled” with their divisions, and felt that “we may now be able to face our theological differences and associated fractures more productively, as we seek responsible and creative ways to remain together, albeit to varying degrees.”

The body has an advisory position in the Communion, and is formed of 18 members, drawn from six continents. About two-thirds of the members come from countries considered to be part of the global South.

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Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue:
Online resource centre for Anglican-Roman Catholic relations

Welcome to the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) website, an online resource centre for Anglican-Roman Catholic relations.

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About IARCCUM

IARCCUM is a commission established by the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church as an official joint commission. IARCCUM exists in parallel with the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, the theological commission known as ARCIC. IARCCUM’s purpose is:

to facilitate the development of strategies for translating the degree of spiritual communion that has been achieved into visible and practical outcomes;
to promote and monitor the formal response and reception of the agreed statements of ARCIC;
to strengthen relations between ARCIC and national Anglican-Roman Catholic Commissions (ARCs), and between different national ARCs, providing support and resources in order to foster an exchange of information and practice;
to encourage Anglican Provinces and Roman Catholic Episcopal Conferences to establish ARC dialogues where they do not exist;
to encourage Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops to develop projects and programmes of joint witness and mission in the world.

In 2000, Archbishop George Carey, then Archbishop of Canterbury, and Cardinal Edward Cassidy, then President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, convoked a conference of Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops at Mississauga in Canada to discern the progress made in theological conversations since the 1960s, and whether closer co-operation could be developed between the two traditions. The result was IARCCUM, which has been meeting since 2001. In February 2007, it published the first fruit of its work, the report Growing Together in Unity and Mission, accompanied by two commentaries. IARCCUM’s work continues under the co-presidency of Archbishop Donald Bolen and Bishop David Hamid.

In October of 2016, IARCCUM gathered 19 pairs of Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops in Canterbury and Rome for an 8-day pilgrimage. This gathering was an opportunity to study and pray together at the tombs of Saints Peter, Paul, Augustine of Canterbury, and Thomas à Becket. The bishop-pairs were commissioned by Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby at vespers at San Gregorio al Celio. On the site where St Gregory the Great commissioned St Augustine to evangelise the English, these bishops were commissioned to promote the growth in communion between these two churches and the reception of the agreements reached in the theological dialogues.