ARCIC III: Anglicans and Roman Catholics can learn much from each other, says new agreed statement

4 July 2018 • Persistent link: iarccum.org/?p=2950

The choir of Hereford Cathedral was invited to join the choir of the Sistine Chapel on the steps of St Peter's, Rome, to sing for the two-hour St Peter's mass on 29 June 2018. The Dean of Hereford Cathedral, the Very Revd Michael Tavinor said: 'We felt today that we were playing our small part for the cause of Christian unity. Those choirboys will be telling their grandchildren about the day they came to Rome and sang for the Pope. It will always be with them' (29 June 2018). Photo: Hereford Cathedral

After nearly seven years of deliberation, the third Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III) has issued a statement on authority, structure, and decision-making, which sets out how the two traditions might learn from each other.

The 34,000-word statement Walking Together on the Way: Learning to be the Church — local, regional, universal, which runs to 70 pages, was published on Monday on the website of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

The text was agreed in Erfurt, Germany, the scene of Martin Luther’s early ministry, on the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation on the Continent.

ARCIC members have described the agreed statement as “exciting”, and suggest that it has the potential to restore ecumenical dialogue to good health after the difficulties experienced since Anglican developments such as the ordination of women and openly gay clergy, and the blessings of same-sex unions.

The statement looks at authority and ecclesial communion in the two Churches. It acknowledges that a significant hindrance to unity is the level at which each Church operates: Anglicans are strong on regional or provincial autonomy, but weak on anything global; whereas the Roman Catholic Church is the reverse.

This raises questions about the level at which decisions are made about ethical, liturgical, and ecclesial matters. ARCIC is now looking specifically at this, with a view to publishing a second statement in the next three years.

The statement promotes a system of “receptive learning” which amounts to self-critical analysis in the light of the differing practices of ecumenical partners, with a view to self-improvement and closer unity.

Anglicans, for instance, are invited to examine successful models of communion and unity with the RC Church, while Roman Catholics are encouraged to learn from Anglicans how to involve the laity in decision-making.

Roman Catholics are also encouraged to consider whether the ordination of women as deacons, and of married men as priests, and allowing lay people to preach is a possible way of bringing the two traditions closer.

Dr Paula Gooder, Canon Theologian of Birmingham Cathedral and an Anglican member of ARCIC, said this week that she was so optimistic about the statement that she considered it to be “ground-breaking. . . We are walking together more closely than ever.

“ARCIC I was about all those things that we easily agree about; ARCIC II more about the things that we have more difficulties in agreement.

“ARCIC III is about recognising that there is a huge amount that we can learn from each other — handling those questions of what are those things we can learn, particularly in the areas of decision-making… There is so much to learn from each other in that context…

“I think this is a really important document. This marks a different register, a gear change. It is definitely a new step.”

In their introduction, the two co-chairmen, the Most Revd David Moxon, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s former representative in Rome, and the RC Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Revd Bernard Longley, write that they hope that their dialogue might contribute to the flourishing of each of their communions — “both by modelling how such mutual learning can today be pursued and by acting as a means of grace through which each communion is more perfectly configured to the image of Christ”.

Archbishop Longley remarked this week: “We have been able to reflect together in a slightly different way from previous documents because we are not merely looking for convergence in terms of our theology: we have also used ‘receptive ecumenism’ as a method of reflecting together.

“Within the Anglican Communion, these are some of the elements of church life that we feel Catholics can reflect on and learn from. And Anglicans are saying: within the Catholic Church these are the things Anglicans can reflect on an learn from. In particular, the focus is on the Church as communion, local and universal.

“I am very excited that we have been able to agree a statement together after quite a lengthy process in this third stage of ARCIC; and I am delighted to think that it will give both encouragement and a challenge to our communions to consider some of the issues that are in the document.”

Dom Henry Wansbrough, a Benedictine monk of Ampleforth Abbey, near York, and an RC member of ARCIC, said that the statement showed that the RC Church was willing to learn about authority and decision-making.

For example, he said: “We are probably in the course of learning from other ecclesial bodies that the laity do have a lot of wisdom.”

Paul Murray, Professor of Systematic Theology in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, and another RC member of ARCIC, expressed confidence that the process of receptive learning would usher in a “new and fresh perspective” to any future dialogue.

“In the first instance it is to help each tradition to be more fruitful and more fulfilled within its own tradition,” he said. “It helps ecumenism immediately because it gives us a fresh way of engaging with each other. This fresh approach gives us a new way forward. It says: ‘Let’s live the difference and live it as a gift.’

“It moves from problem-solving between traditions to learning from each other in ways that give us some real work to do.”

In the longer term, such understanding would move the traditions along the way to full communion, he said.

THE statement Walking Together on the Way subverts the image of an argumentative and fissiparous Anglican Communion by depicting this as a strength: “Dialogue within our respective traditions about such difficult matters as the proper place for decisions on questions of ministry and human sexuality should be welcomed rather than feared…

“The development of doctrine shows that contested questions, often debated vigorously throughout the Church, locally, regionally, and globally, can lead eventually to a deeper common understanding and more precise articulation of the truth.”

In contrast, the document states that the instinct for unity in the RC tradition can result in “the suppression of difference, the inhibiting of candid conversation, and the avoidance of contentious issues in open fora”.

The document addresses various polarities that can prevail within a Church. Thus “too strong an emphasis on local autonomy … leads to insufficient critical distance from the prevailing culture and inadequate attention to the expressions and practice of faith in other parts of the Church.” At the other extreme, too much centralisation of authority “can lead to the proclamation of a gospel that does not properly enter into specific cultural realities”.

The gospel, which proclaims the “limitless love and salvific will of God, … is both deeply personal and local in appropriation and yet necessarily universal in scope and intention”.

Several sections of the document are printed in two columns, as the authors set the different structures and processes of the two communions in parallel. These include: the involvement of the laity, the authority and selection of bishops, the challenge of parochialism, approaches to church growth, concepts of reception, regional organisation, primacy, and synodical organisation.

The document also looks at the two communions’ self-understanding “relative to the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ”.

It concludes with three short sections summing up what the Churches need to learn together; what Roman Catholics could learn from Anglicans; and what Anglicans could learn from Roman Catholics:

Mutual receptive learning

Through the study of the Church local, trans-local, and universal, the Commission has asked what Anglicans and Catholics could learn from one another to make us better able to walk together in the way of communion. We believe that Anglicans can learn from Roman Catholic structures and procedures which have developed in the service of unity at the trans-local and universal levels.

We also believe that Catholics can learn from Anglican structures and procedures which have developed to ensure consultation and deliberation at the local and trans-local levels. In both cases there needs to be a richer understanding of the role of the laity as those who through their baptism participate fully in the threefold office of Christ as prophet, priest, and king.

Roman Catholic receptive learning from Anglicans

The discernment of proper teaching, sound governance, and appropriate pastoral care requires a healthy and open conversation in the Church. In the judgement of the Commission, the Roman Catholic Church can learn from the culture of open and frank debate that exists at all levels of the Anglican Communion, evidenced by the indaba process, for example.

The Anglican practice of granting a deliberative role to synods and of investing authority in regional instruments of communion indicates that the Synod of Bishops could be granted a deliberative role and further suggests the need for the Roman Catholic Church to articulate more clearly the authority of episcopal conferences.

Mindful of the participation in the threefold office of Christ of both laity and the ordained, the Catholic Church can fruitfully learn from the inclusion of laity in decision-making structures at every level of Anglican life.

Anglican receptive learning from the Roman Catholic Church

Receptive learning for Anglicans from Roman Catholic ecclesial life begins with an appreciation for the depth of commitment to the unity of the universal Church.

In the judgement of the Commission, a renewed commitment to this ethos of unity would be strengthened through commitments such as: the use of at least one common, modern eucharistic prayer across the Communion; the provision of an approved common catechism; formal reception of the Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion; further exploration of the role of the See of Canterbury and its cathedral as the seat of the Archbishop as a focus of unity; and the practice of pilgrimage visits by bishops to meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury for prayer and consultation.

Receptive learning from Roman Catholic expressions of episcopal leadership would include reflection on: diverse communities in full communion with one another in the same region; models of episcopal consultation and deliberation as seen in episcopal conferences and the Synod of Bishops as recently developed; the normative presence of a voice from outside the province, representing the wider Church in the deliberations and life of a regional church; and clarity of recognized processes for discernment, communication, and reception of authoritative teachings and decisions.