Anglican leader’s concern for unity reflects Vatican concerns

29 July 2009 • Persistent link: iarccum.org/?p=970

[Vatican City] Vatican concerns about how some recent decisions of the U.S. Episcopal Church will impact the search for full AnglicanRoman Catholic unity are echoed in a reflection by Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Communion.

Writing July 27 about the Episcopal Churchs recent general convention, Archbishop Williams repeatedly referred to the need to keep in mind the ecumenical implications of local church decisions in addition to their impact on the unity of the Anglican Communion as a whole.

Archbishop Williamsreflection, titledCommunion, Covenant and Our Anglican Future,” was published on the archbishops Web site at http://rowanwilliams.archbishopofcanterbury.org.

In a statement July 29, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity noted Archbishop Williamsconcern for maintaining the unity of the Anglican Communion through common faith and practice based on Scripture and tradition.

The Vatican officesupports the archbishop in his desire to strengthen these bonds of communion, and to articulate more fully the relationship between the local and the universal within the church,” the statement said.

It is our prayer that the Anglican Communion, even in this difficult situation, may find a way to maintain its unity and its witness to Christ as a worldwide communion,” it added.

The Episcopal Churchs general convention adopted two resolutions that may further strain relations within the Anglican Communion and with the Catholic Church: One affirmed that all ordained ministries, including the office of bishop, are open to all the baptized, including gays and lesbians; the other called for the collection and development of theological resources for the blessing of samesex unions.

Last year the Lambeth Conference, a gathering of leaders from around the Anglican Communion, strongly urged all members of the communion to respect moratoriums on ordaining openly gay bishops and on blessing samesex unions.

After their general convention, the leaders of the Episcopal Church wrote to Archbishop Williams, saying that their resolutions do not signal the end of the moratoriums, but rather describe the position of the U.S. church.

Pope Benedict XVI and his top ecumenical officer have said the Episcopal Churchs position on homosexuality and its ordination of women as priests and bishops make full AnglicanRoman Catholic unity appear impossible.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told the Lambeth Conference last year that what is at stakeis nothing other than our faithfulness to Christ himself.”

While recognizing the Episcopaliansdesire to respond to what they see as a pastoral need, he said the Catholic Church is convinced that its teaching that homosexual activity is sinfulis wellfounded in the Old and in the New Testamentas well as in Christian tradition.

And, the cardinal said, the Catholic Church also believes the fact that Christ chose only men to be his apostles means the church is not authorized to ordain women.

Responding to challenges posed by modern sensitivities requires solutions that are clearly in line with the teaching of the Gospel and of Christian tradition, recognized not only by Roman Catholics, but also by the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, Cardinal Kasper had said.

In his reflection July 27, Archbishop Williams said the Anglican Communion clearly opposes prejudice against homosexual people and denounces any attempt to limit their civil liberties.

But, the archbishop said, “if society changes its attitudes, that change does not of itself count as a reason for the church to change its discipline.”

In the light of the way in which the church has consistently read the Bible for the last 2,000 years,” he said, any major change in church practice must havea strong level of consensus and solid theological grounding,” as well as take into accountthe teachings of ecumenical partners.”

Recognizing the authority of and particular circumstances faced by local churches, the archbishop still insisted that a local church needssome way of including in its discernment the judgment of the wider church. Without this, it risks becoming unrecognizable to other local churches, pressing ahead with changes that render it strange to Christian sisters and brothers across the globe.”

Accepting major changes to church discipline and practice without the consensus of the entire communion, he said, “would be to reconceive the Anglican Communion as essentially a loose federation of local bodies with a cultural history in common, rather than a theologically coherentcommunity of Christian communities.'”

Archbishop Williamsreflection theorized that the future of the Anglican Communion may involve two styles of relationships: one that fully sharesa vision of how the church should be and behave,” and another less formal style of associated churches that work together in areas of common agreement.

Anglican Communion representatives to ecumenical and interfaith dialogues would be drawn only from members who fully share the communions vision and teachings so that the Anglicansecumenical partners would know who they are talking to at the dialogue meetings, he said.