Dialogue with Separated Anglican Churches Moves Forward
Episcopal News Service. January 22, 2003 [2003-012]
Thomas Ferguson, Associate Deputy in the church's Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations and attended the dialogue in that capacity
(ENS) In an historic meeting that took important first steps to dispel years of ignorance and suspicion, delegations from the Reformed Episcopal Church, the Anglican Province of America, and the Episcopal Church met at St. Paul's College in Washington, DC, January 15-16.
The meeting was a direct result of resolutions from the 1998 Lambeth Conference of bishops of the Anglican Communion calling for dialogue with separated Anglican churches, as well as Resolution D047 of the 2000 General Convention. A previous meeting with other Continuing Anglican churches was held in December of 2002.
The Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Province of America were invited to participate based on two main factors. First, both churches have previously engaged in ecumenical dialogues with the Episcopal Church--the REC most recently in 1993, the APA most recently in 1987, when it was known as the American Episcopal Church. Second, the two churches are in the middle of a 10-year process towards organic merger. The REC was formed in 1873 by the Episcopal Assistant Bishop of Kentucky, George Cummins, largely in response to disputes regarding liturgical and ecumenical matters. The Anglican Province of America is the successor of the American Episcopal Church, formed in 1968 in reaction over the Episcopal Church's reluctance to discipline Bishop James Pike of California.
Representing the Episcopal Church were Bishop Edward Salmon of South Carolina, chair; the Rev. Stephen White, Episcopal chaplain at Princeton University; the Rev. Thomas Rightmyer, retired executive secretary of the General Board of Examining Chaplains; Diane Knippers, member of the Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations; and staff from the Episcopal Church's Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations.
Participants from Reformed Episcopal Church included Presiding Bishop Leonard Riches; Bishop Royal Grote, vice-president of the General Council and bishop of the Diocese of Mid America; Bishop Ray Sutton, rector of the Church of the Holy Communion in Dallas, Texas, chair of the Inter-Church Relations Committee of the REC and suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Mid America; and the Rev. David Hicks, canon to the ordinary of the Diocese of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
The delegation from the APA included Presiding Bishop Walter Grundorf; the Rev. Mark Clavier, chair of the APA's Ecumenical Committee; the Rev. Paul Blankinship and Frank Warren, members of the Ecumenical Committee.
Into the mainstream
The dialogue heard a presentation from Sutton on recent development within the Reformed Episcopal Church. He noted that it had moved considerably into the mainstream of Anglicanism, revising its Prayer Book to be more in line with the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; adopting the three-year lectionary of the Australian Prayer Book; returning the word "regeneration" to the baptismal rite (thus resolving one of the contentious issues from the 1873 split); and engaging in a vigorous program of church growth.
Clavier discussed the development of the "continuing" churches, defined as those specific churches which emerged from the 1977 Congress of St. Louis. The APA is not strictly a continuing church, since it predated that congress and did not officially participate.
Staff from the Episcopal Church's ecumenical office led a discussion of the church's ecumenical theology, noting that it was not seeking to absorb these churches. Rather, the stated ecumenical policy was to seek a "communion of communions," with interchangeability of clergy, for the sake of common witness and mission in the world.
There was extensive discussion on the need for accurate information about the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Province of America. Grundorf in particular noted that the APA and its predecessor body had never declared ECUSA "apostate" for its decision to ordain women, and had entered into dialogue on two separate occasions.
While acknowledging differences of opinion on the matter of the ordination of women, it was noted that the Episcopal Church remains in communion with other provinces of the Anglican Communion that do not ordain women, and is engaged in ecumenical dialogues with other churches that do ordain women.
Divergent opinions
At the next meeting, the bulk of the theological discussion will center on the implications of holding divergent opinions on the ordination of women. In addition, the three churches agreed by consensus that the Episcopal Church would add an ordained woman to its delegation for its next meeting.
The dialogue team also began a preliminary discussion of the orders of the Reformed Episcopal Church. They discussed the 1938 Report of the House of Bishops, which determined that, though irregularities existed in the succession of bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church, they were not enough to invalidate the historic succession of the REC. The dialogue team asked the Episcopal Church members to refer this report to the Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations for further study during the 2003-2006 triennium.
"This is like getting re-acquainted with your long lost second-cousins," said Rightmyer, expressing his enthusiasm for continuing the dialogue. "These talks were all that we could have expected and more. The sincerity of the talks and the warmth of fellowship did much to dispel stereotypes," added Grundorf.