wfn.org | ACNS - ARCIC completes second phase of co-operation

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ACNS 3819     |     ACO     |	  26 APRIL 2004

ARCIC completes second phase of co-operation

[ACNS] The Director of Ecumenical Affairs at the Anglican Communion
Office (the Revd Canon Gregory K Cameron) last month reported to the
Joint Standing Committee of the Primates and Anglican Consultative
Council (ACC) that the current Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue had
reached a significant milestone.

In a report to the Joint Standing Committee, which was held in
Canterbury in March, Canon Gregory Cameron confirmed that the Anglican -
Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) had completed its work
on a document "Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ" setting out an agreed
framework for the theological and devotional understanding of Mary in
the Christian faith.

The completion of the document, which will be published in the first
half of next year - alongside two commentaries from Anglican and Roman
Catholic perspectives - is significant since it completes the work of
the second phase of ARCIC. This means that the dialogue has now
addressed all the items on the agenda for dialogue between the Anglican
Communion and the Roman Catholic Church set out by Pope Paul VI and
Archbishop Michael Ramsey in 1966. The contextual commentaries are
currently under preparation.

Early agreements on the Eucharist, the ordained Ministry, and Authority
in the Church, have been succeeded over the years with agreed statements
on salvation, ethical teaching, and further consideration of the nature
of the Church and Authority. The last agreed statement by ARCIC was "The
Gift of Authority" in 1999.

In December 2003, the Anglican Communion Office and the Pontifical
Council for Promoting Christian Unity indicated that, after the
completion of the Agreed Statement on Mary, attention would be given to
planning the future agenda for the next phase of the theological
dialogue. The Joint Standing Committee has consequently passed a motion
asking the Most Revd Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and
Pope John Paul II to consider the establishment of the third phase of
ARCIC's work as soon as possible.

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