Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on the Theology of Marriage (ARCCM)
1968-1975

Sub-headings on this page: agreements | responses | communiques | minutes | reports | studies | journals | drafts | correspondence | resources

The Commission was established jointly in 1967, on the one part by the Roman Catholic Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity with the approval of His Holiness Pope Paul VI and on the other part by the Most Reverend and Right Honorable A.M. Ramsey Lord Archbishop of Canterbury on behalf of the Anglican Communion.

The problems arising from mixed marriages had been recognized as one of the chief of those “practical questions” referred to in the Joint Declaration made by the Pope and the Archbishop in Rome in March 1966; and when the Anglican-Roman Catholic Joint Preparatory Commission met at Gazzada in January 1967, one of its first acts was to recommend the setting up of a special commission to consider the Theology of Marriage with special reference to Mixed Marriages. The recommendation was immediately accepted on both sides.

The Commission met six times: at St. George’s House, Windsor Castle, from 16 to 18 April, 1968; at Pineta Sacchetti, Rome, from 27 to 30 November, 1968; in London, from 22 to 25 November, 1971; at Haywards Heath, at the Priory of Our Lady of Good Counsel, from 9 to 12 April, 1973; at the Divinity Hostel, Dublin, from 1 to 5 April, 1974; and at Casa Cardinale Piazza, Venice, from 23 to 27 June, 1975, when this final report was given unanimous approval.

The Commission was originally identified as a sub-commission of the Joint Preparatory Committee. However, after the ARCJPC issued the Malta Report in 1968, the sub-commission on Mixed Marriage was renamed as the Commission on the Theology of Mixed Marriage. The first documents bear protocol numbers ARCJPC-MM1 to ARCJPC-MM-10, while subsequent documents use the acronym ARCCM.

The following list includes all documents in the ARCCM fonds, sorted by category and date. A list of all ARCCM documents in order by protocol number is available at iarccum.org/doc/arccm/.

NOTE: The following list includes all documents in our ARCCM fonds, sorted by category and date. In addition to documents held in the current fonds, there are also documents specifically authored by ARCCM.

Agreed Statements

Responses to Agreed Statements

Communiqués & Press Releases

Minutes

Reports

Study papers

Journal articles

Draft texts & Schema

Working correspondence

Resources