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Vatican opens talks with Anglican Communion
CHURCH OF ENGLAND NEWSPAPER
December 16, 2005
After a year-long break sparked by the election of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, talks have resumed between the Vatican and the Anglican Communion.
In a Communiqué released on December 12, the Anglican members of the Consultation stated that tensions between the two Churches "following developments in two of the Anglican Provinces relating to ministry by and to persons of a homosexual orientation and practise" had led to a postponement of the 2004 meeting.
Assurances by the Anglican Communion led to a resumption of talks and a fourth meeting of IARCCUM, the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission, were held "to review work on the project to produce a Common Statement" that would "identify a sufficient degree of agreement in faith to enable the development of a deepened common life and mission" between the two Churches, the statement read.
The Commission also completed work on a summary of theological agreements reached between the two ecclesial communities.
The report will "harvest the theological fruits" of 40 years of the ARCIC agreements, "taking the thinking and turning it into mission" the Rt Rev Edwin Gulick, Bishop of Kentucky said, citing prayer services where Roman Catholics and Anglicans renew their baptismal vows.
The report has not been made public and is to be submitted to the Vatican and to London for review and publication.
The Anglican members of the Consultation present in Rome were: the chairman, the Rt Rev David Beetge, Bishop of the Highveld; the Most Rev Peter Carnley, retired Primate of Australia and Archbishop of Perth; the Rt Rev Peter Fox, Bishop of Port Moresby; Dr Mary Tanner of the Church of England, Bishop Gulick and representatives from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Consultative Council joined Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and the Roman Catholic delegation at a Nov 13 evening prayer service at Rome's Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls. In his homily, Archbishop Carnley suggested a model for Church unity was the unity of the Trinity.
The three persons of the Trinity were "not absorbed into the life of the others to the point where all individuality is lost," but they are one "by virtue of the fact that they share a common will and a common purpose; they are one in the common exchange of love," he said.
The Church must strive for unity so that "the world may know what God is like" as division and schism are symbols of "infidelity", a "denial of the reality and presence of God in the midst of us".
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