wfn.org | Anglicans and Roman Catholics statement on Authority

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

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Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
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212/922-5383
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-073

Anglicans and Roman Catholics release statement on 
Authority

by James Solheim

(ENS) After five years of careful dialogue, the co-
chairs of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission on 
(ARCIC) May 12 released the text of "The Gift of Authority" at a 
news conference in London's Westminster Abbey.

The new statement emerges from a series of dialogues 
that began with a 1966 visit of Archbishop of Canterbury Michael 
Ramsey to Pope Paul VI at the Vatican. They have produced a 
number of statements on the Eucharist, Ministry and Ordination, 
and now Authority in the Church. "The Gift of Authority" is the 
fourth statement from the second phase of ARCIC's work.

Authority, particularly the authority of the Bishop of 
Rome, has been "a key element in the division that occurred at 
the time of the English Reformation," said the Church of 
England's Bishop Mark Santer of Birmingham, and Bishop Cormac 
Murphy-O'Connor, the Catholic bishop of Arundel and Brighton, at 
the press conference.

"For four centuries the Anglican Communion and the 
Catholic Church developed their structures of authority in 
separation from each other, and Anglicans lived without the 
ministry of the Bishop of Rome," they said.

A Final Report issued in 1981 at the end of the first 
round of dialogues revealed broad agreement on how authority 
operates in the church, the role of bishops, and even about the 
significance of the papal office in "a reunited Church and the 
place his ministry has in God's providential plan for his 
Church." Yet the report also revealed "some serious issues had 
still to be resolved." Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey and 
Pope John Paul II agreed in 1996 that "we shall not reach the 
full visible unity to which we are both committed" without an 
agreement on authority.

A call for careful study

"It is a closely argued, rich text, with every 
sentence important in leading towards its conclusion," the 
bishops said in their background statement. "It therefore will 
need careful study and reflection in our two Communions."

Stressing the understanding of authority as "God's 
gift to be received gratefully," they drew upon a Scriptural 
image from Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians that suggests 
authority serves the church in its attempt to remember the "yes" 
God has given to the world in Jesus Christ, enabling church 
members "to respond with a faithful 'amen' as they walk Christ's 
way."

The statement outlines how authority is exercised at 
various levels in the life of the church, "including how the 
whole people of God bears the Tradition across space and time, 
and the particular role bishops have in discerning and 
articulating this faith of the Church and ensuring that all the 
Churches are in communion."

The statement agrees about the role of the Bishop of 
Rome "within the college of bishops concerning the discernment of 
truth," making it clear that in certain circumstances he has "a 
duty to discern and make explicit, in fidelity to Scripture and 
Tradition, the authentic faith of the whole Church, that is the 
faith of all the baptized in communion." ARCIC said that it 
believes that "this is a gift to be received by all the Churches 
and is entailed in the recognition of the primacy of the Bishop 
of Rome."

Issues facing Anglicans

In the final section, the statement addressed one of 
the most contentious issues at last summer's Lambeth Conference 
of Anglican bishops--the interdependence among the provinces of 
the Anglican Communion. "Is the Communion also open to the 
acceptance of instruments of oversight which would allow 
decisions to be reached that, in certain circumstances, would 
bind the whole Church?.. To what extent does unilateral action by 
provinces or dioceses in matters concerning the whole Church, 
even after consultation has taken place, weaken koinonia?" the 
statement asked.

While underscoring a willingness among Anglicans to 
"tolerate anomalies for the sake of maintaining communion," the 
statement said that there was a price to pay in an "impairment of 
communion."

Issue at heart of relationship

In a covering memo to the Episcopal Church's bishops 
and ecumenical participants, the Rev. David Perry said that the 
topic of authority may sound esoteric but he stressed its 
importance for the life of the whole church. "We are talking 
about how decisions are made in the church--by whom and with what 
effect," said the church's ecumenical officer. "The issue goes to 
the heart of all our relationships, not only within our own 
church but in our relationship with ecumenical partners. And how 
we view authority is related to almost every other issue in our 
life together."

Perry hopes that local Roman Catholic and Episcopal 
dioceses will "take the time to carefully study the document." 
And he said that the dialogue between the two churches in this 
country (ARC-USA) will be "enriched" by the statement.

Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold said in a sermon at 
the March meeting of ARC-USA that such statements "are signs of 
the unwavering commitment of our two communities to resolve all 
that impedes our full and open recognition of the communion we 
share in the risen Christ."

In the continuing journey toward unity, Griswold, who 
is the newly appointed co-chair of ARCIC, expressed a hope that 
"we are so ready to have our vision expanded, our hearts broken 
open, and our tendency to try and fit God's truth to our own, 
undermined and overturned."

The presiding bishop called the statement on authority 
"another important step forward in the long and arduous journey 
toward the establishment of full visible communion.," one that 
"challenges Anglicans and Roman Catholics to think in fresh ways" 
about how authority can serve in the "reconciliation of all 
things in Christ."

(The text is available on the Websites for both 
churches: www.anglicancommunion.org and www.nccbuscc.org. and in 
printed version from the Episcopal Book and Resource Center in 
New York (tel. 800-334-7626, ext. 6118).

--James Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's 
Office of News and Information.