Author/editor(s): Elaine MacMillan
Publisher: Ph.D. diss., University of St. Michael's College, Toronto
Creation: 2000 (The date of original creation or publication, if known)
Size/extent: 263 pages

Persistent link: https://iarccum.org/doc/?d=1818 (Please use this permanent URL in your publications and bookmarks to link to this document. The files linked below may be modified, but this record will remain at this location.)

“The question of authority in the Church has long been recognized as crucial to the growth in unity of the Roman Catholic Church and the churches of the Anglican Communion,” wrote the ARCIC I Co-Chairs. This dissertation is situated within the ongoing Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue about authority and studies ARCIC I’s understanding of conciliarity in an ecclesiology of communion.

The thesis is divided into three parts. Part I provides the historical and theological background to the dissertation. It examines the following theological concepts which are at the heart of the thesis: koinonia, episcope and the complementary elements of episcope which are conciliarity and primacy.

Part II studies the ways in which the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church used the synodical structures at their disposal to respond to The Final Report of ARCIC I. This study revealed that conciliarity functions in each communion, but neither has yet achieved the ideal balance between conciliarity and primacy proposed by ARCIC I.

Both communions prepared official responses to The Final Report. The 1988 Lambeth Conference gave a positive response to ARCIC I’s statements on Eucharistic Doctrine and Ministry and Ordination and argued that the statements on authority “set out helpfully the direction and agenda of the way forward.” The Roman Catholic Church, however, was not as positive in its 1991 Official Response.

In addition to the official responses a number of theologians and professional ecumenists participated in the public dialogue about The Final Report. The overall quality and variety of these responses demonstrate the importance of widespread consultation in conciliar decision making.

Part III concludes the dissertation and argues that ARCIC I has recovered conciliarity from the common tradition of both communions and identified a longstanding need in the church to hold synods. ARCIC I’s commitment to koinonia influenced the way in which it developed its understanding of conciliar and primatial authority as complementary elements of episcope serving the diversity and unity of the koinonia of the churches.

Finally, this study on conciliarity in an ecclesiology of communion is situated within the trajectory of prayer, reflection and study begun by The Final Report and is offered as a contribution towards the goal of organic union envisioned by ARCIC I.