Themes

The following controlled themes are used to identify recurring subjects in the dialogue documents, meetings, and related archive records.

• Apostolicity: the apostolic character of the Church, including apostolic succession, apostolic tradition, and continuity with the faith and mission of the apostles.
• Authority: authority in the Church, including teaching authority, discernment, conciliarity, and the exercise of authority in Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue.
• Communion: communion as the shared life of the Church, including visible unity, koinonia, ecclesial relationships, and communion between local and universal churches.
• Ecclesiology: the nature, structure, and mission of the Church, including ecclesial identity, unity, diversity, and the relationship between local and universal expressions of the Church.
• Episcopacy: bishops and the episcopal ministry, including episcope, collegiality, succession, and the role of bishops in the unity and oversight of the Church.
• Eucharist: eucharistic doctrine and practice, including the presence of Christ, sacrifice, memorial, reservation, and the Eucharist as a sign and means of communion.
• Mary: Mary in Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue, especially the Marian dogmas, the place of Mary in Scripture and tradition, and Mary in the life of the Church.
• Ministry: ministry in the Church, including ordained and lay ministries, recognition of ministry, and the relationship between ministry, mission, and ecclesial communion.
• Mission: the mission of the Church and the shared witness of Anglicans and Roman Catholics in service, evangelization, dialogue, and common life.
• Mixed marriage: marriages between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, including pastoral care, canonical questions, family life, and the ecclesial implications of mixed marriage.
• Moral discernment: moral teaching and ethical discernment, including the way Anglicans and Roman Catholics address questions of conscience, doctrine, and Christian life.
• Ordination: ordination, especially Anglican orders, the ordination of women, priesthood, and the theological questions surrounding ordained ministry.
• Primacy: primacy in the Church, including the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, Petrine ministry, papal authority, and primacy in relation to conciliarity and communion.
• Reception: the reception of dialogue statements and ecumenical agreements, including official responses, study processes, and the life of the churches after publication.
• Sacramental sharing: sacramental sharing between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, including eucharistic hospitality, pastoral practice, and historical discussions of intercommunion.
• Sacraments: sacramental theology and practice, including baptism, marriage, Eucharist, and the role of the sacraments in ecclesial life and unity.
• Salvation: salvation, justification, grace, redemption, and the role of the Church in proclaiming and mediating the saving work of Christ.
• Scripture and tradition: Scripture and tradition, including revelation, interpretation, teaching authority, and the relationship between Scripture, tradition, and the life of the Church.
• Synodality: synodality and the shared discernment of the Church, including walking together, consultation, accountability, and local, regional, and universal dimensions of ecclesial life.