Churches back plan to unite under
Pope
London Times
2/18/07
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article1403702.ece
Radical proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church
under the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times
has learnt.
The proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches.
In a 42-page statement prepared by an international commission of both
churches, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are urged to explore how they might
reunite under the Pope.
The statement, leaked to The Times, is being considered by the
It comes as the archbishops who lead the 38 provinces of the Anglican
Communion meet in
The 36 primates at the gathering will be aware that the Pope, while still
a cardinal, sent a message of support to the orthodox wing of the Episcopal
Church of the
Were this week’s discussions to lead to a split between liberals and conservatives,
many of the former objections in
There are about 78 million Anglicans, compared with a billion Roman Catholics,
worldwide. In
As the Anglicans’ squabbles over the fundamentals of Christian doctrine
continue with seven of the conservative primates twice refusing to share
Communion with the other Anglican leaders at their meeting in
The Anglicans will attempt to resolve their differences today by publishing
a new Anglican Covenant, an attempt to provide a doctrinal statement under
which they can unite.
But many fear that the divisions have gone too far to be bridged and that,
if they cannot even share Communion with each other, there is little hope
that they will agree on a statement of common doctrine.
The latest Anglican-Catholic report could hardly come at a more sensitive
time. It has been drawn up by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission
for Unity and
The commission was set up in 2000 by the former Archbishop of Canterbury,
Lord Carey of
The document leaked to The Times is the commission’s first statement,
Growing Together in Unity and
In one significant passage the report notes: “The Roman Catholic Church
teaches that the ministry of the Bishop of Rome [the Pope] as universal primate
is in accordance with Christ’s will for the Church and an essential element
of maintaining it in unity and truth.” Anglicans rejected the Bishop of Rome
as universal primate in the 16th century. Today, however, some Anglicans are
beginning to see the potential value of a ministry of universal primacy, which
would be exercised by the Bishop of Rome, as a sign and focus of unity within
a reunited Church.
In another paragraph the report goes even further: “We urge Anglicans
and Roman Catholics to explore together how the ministry of the Bishop of
Rome might be offered and received in order to assist our Communions to grow
towards full, ecclesial communion.”
Other recommendations include inviting lay and ordained members of both
denominations to attend each other’s synodical and
collegial gatherings and conferences. Anglican bishops could be invited to
accompany Catholic ones on visits to
The report adds that special “protocols” should also be drawn up to handle
the movement of clergy from one Church to the other. Other proposals include
common teaching resources for children in Sunday schools and attendance at
each other’s services, pilgrimages and processions.
Anglicans are also urged to begin praying for the Pope during the intercessionary prayers in church services, and Catholics
are asked also to pray publicly for the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In today’s Anglican Church, it is unlikely that a majority of parishioners
would wish to heal the centuries-old rift and return to
However, the stance of the Archbishop of Canterbury over the present dispute
dividing his Church gives an indication of how priorities could be changing
in light of the gospel imperative towards church unity.
Dr Rowan Williams, who as Primate of the Church of England is its “focus
for unity”, has in the past supported a liberal interpretation of Scripture
on the gay issue. But he has made it clear that church unity must come before
provincial autonomy. A logical extension of that, once this crisis is overcome
either by agreement or schism, would be to seek reunion with the Church of
England's own mother Church.