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Commitment to visible unity highlights Section Four Report

ACNS LC080 - 3 August 1998

Commitment to visible unity highlights Section Four Report

by Randall R. Lee
Lambeth Conference Communications

Calling for a re-commitment to the historic Anglican concern for
the visible unity of the Church and also the unity of the human
community, the draft report from Lambeth's Section Four
identifies "humility, gentleness, patience and loving tolerance"
as essential ecumenical tools.

Under the theme "Called to be One," the report highlights the
three major topics considered by the section. 

Relations with other churches

The first chapter of the report summarizes significant
developments in relationships with churches in communion, in
local dialogues, regional efforts at cooperation, and discussions
with councils of churches, especially the World Council of
Churches. The report recognizes that the movement toward visible
unity will result in the development of certain "anomalies," but
that these anomalies "are rooted in the greatest anomaly, which
is division within the Body of Christ."

Nevertheless, "visible unity is to point to the sort of life God
intends for the whole of humanity, a foretaste of God's Kingdom,"
the report says. As in the past, Anglicans will be helped in
their ecumenical work by re-affirming The Chicago-Lambeth
Quadrilateral of 1888, which the report calls "a dynamic for
unity." 

Turning to the theme of "New Churches and Independent Christian
Groups," identified as an area of "growing concern" and addressed
for the first time by a Lambeth Conference, the report rejects
the simplistic terms of "pentecostal" and "fundamentalist" to
describe these churches. Rather, the report identifies eight
characteristics such as biblical literalism and "free and
enthusiastic" worship. 

While many have experienced these churches with "a sense of
threat," the report suggests that Anglicans might learn from
them. Lessons could include how to train people to evangelise,
more forcefully proclaim the Scriptures, and achieve greater
clarity in moral teaching.

International relations

The third chapter of the report covers the work accomplished
during the last decade in bilateral and multilateral
conversations. A summary of Anglican international conversations
with 10 church groups is included, along with a reflection on the
important contributions of the Faith and Order Commission of the
World Council of Churches.

All three themes contribute to one of the most controversial
sections of the report, "Consistency and Coherence: Response and
Reception," endorsing the proposal of the 1996 Agros Report for
the establishment of an Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on
Ecumenical Relations. If approved, the report states, the
commission will review regional ecumenical proposals "to ensure
that they are consonant with an overall agreed vision of the goal
of unity."

For further information, contact:

   Lambeth Conference Communications
   Canterbury Business School
   University of Kent at Canterbury
   Telephone: 01227 827348/9
   Fax: 01227 828085
   Mobile: 0374 800212

   http://www.lambethconference.org