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Bishop of Chichester sees lessons for Church of England in Rome synod
17 October 2024 • Persistent link: iarccum.org/?p=5098
The Anglican Communion’s representative at the ongoing Synod on Synodality at the Vatican, the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, has urged the Church of England to learn from the “spiritual atmosphere” of the Rome discussions, while also defending its greater “decision-making transparency”.
Dr Warner is one of 16 non-Roman Catholic “fraternal delegates” participating in the Synod. He said: “There’s a very profound stylistic lesson to be learned — about the role of silence, of conversation in the Holy Spirit as the main protagonist in debates.
“The discussion in small groups, irrigated by silence and prayer, is quite unlike the structural and legislative model of the Church of England’s General Synod. Although it might seem a small detail, something like this could transform the General Synod’s mood and atmosphere.”
Dr Warner, who co-chairs the bilateral English and Welsh Anglican-Roman Catholic Committee, attended an ecumenical service of prayer and candlelit vigil for Christian unity on Friday evening. Pope Francis led the event, which the Taizé Community had organised.
Read the rest of this article in The Church Times
Speaking to the Church Times this week, Dr Warner said that Protestant, Orthodox, and Evangelical delegates had been welcomed on “almost complete and equal terms” with RC participants, were allowed to speak at plenary and round-table sessions, and could submit written comments to the Synod Secretariat.
He said that a 146-page document, The Bishop of Rome, published in June by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, had been “incredibly helpful” in outlining how “primacy and subsidiarity” might be exercised between the Pope and other Christian leaders.
“Far from being confined to some discreet chapter, the ecumenical dimension will run through the Synod’s synthesis report, and is integrated into the way the Church, a communion of communions, is envisaged,” he said.
“I think it represents a very fruitful exploration into ensuring equal dignity, which opens up obvious questions as to how other ecclesial communities are recognised and included.”
The Synod on Synodality — the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops — is debating “communion, participation, and mission”.
In a statement, the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity confirmed that representatives of the “four major Christian traditions” had been invited “not only as observers”.
Other participants include delegates from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Serbian and Romanian Orthodox Churches, the Coptic Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Churches, the World Methodist Council, the Communion of Reformed Churches, the Baptist Alliance, and the Pentecostal Fellowship.
Speaking at Friday’s ecumenical liturgy, the Pope said that the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) had marked the RC Church’s “official entry” into the ecumenical movement, and that the current Synod was helping Christians to discover how “unity and synodality” were linked.
“Just as we do not know beforehand what the outcome of the Synod will be, neither do we know exactly what the unity to which we are called will be like.”
Dr Warner said that the Synod on Synodality’s discussions were now turning to “more demanding” questions about “how to implement the things being talked about”. There had been demands for “greater clarity and transparency in decision-making processes” at all levels of the RC Church.
“Some of this sounds very similar to the Church of England’s synodical processes — with the major difference that our own Synod, with its three elected Houses, is deliberative and legislative, whereas this synodal process is consultative and advisory, with papal primacy remaining in place.”
At a meeting this week with the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, Dr Warner said: “I think the Anglican Communion’s struggle with its own instruments of unity could be very helpfully informed by a general recognition that the Bishop of Rome has a pre-eminence, universally and globally, of service and love to the rest of the Church, which gives us a capacity for holding together as Christians.”
