Anglican-Roman Catholic Group Meets
Diocesan Press Service. January 8, 1968 [61-10]
After careful study and discussion, the Joint Consultation on Anglican-Roman Catholic relations in the United States has agreed that whatever minor differences of understanding exist regarding the priesthood and its relationship to the laity, they do not in themselves constitute a barrier to the churches celebrating and receiving communion together, The consultation met in Jackson, Miss,, Jan, 5-7.
In their continuing conversations and study of official documentation and theological papers on the necessity and role of the ordained priesthood and relationship of this ministry to the common priesthood and role of the laity in the church, it was agreed that there is no basic difference of understanding.
In Jackson, as at previous meetings of the Consultation, members attended one another's liturgies but did not receive communion at each other's altars. The Most Rev. Charles H. Helmsing, Roman Catholic Bishop of Kansas City- St. Joseph, and the Rt. Rev. Donald V. Hallock, Episcopal Bishop of Milwaukee, co-chairmen of the Consultation, agreed that there were still obstacles to intercommunion and that precipitous action by this group at this time would not be to the advantage of the whole church.
This was the fifth meeting of the two groups since 1965. Previously the Joint Consultation had agreed that the Eucharist is the central sign and cause of unity and there existed no significant difference between the two churches in the United States on understanding the Eucharist as sacrifice.
The Consultation also began to discuss other still existing unresolved barriers which prevent inter-communion between Roman Catholics and Episcopalians, especially papal primacy, jurisdiction and infallibility and Roman Catholic judgments on Anglican orders and apostolic succession.
For the next encounter, lay and bishop members of the Joint Consultation have been asked to explore the problem of unity between Anglicans and Roman Catholics from the viewpoint of the layman's experience and from the bishop's viewpoint as guardian and representative of church unity. The group usually meets twice a year, but has delayed the next session until after the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Bishops and has set the date for Dec. 2-5. It will be in Kansas City.
The Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Episcopal Bishop of Mississippi and member of the committee, was local host for the Consultation's meeting in Jackson. The Rev. Marshall James, headmaster of St. Andrews School, was host to the work sessions which were held at the School.
Other members of the Joint Consultation were, for the Anglicans: the Rt. Rev. John S. Higgins, Rhode Island, the Rt. Rev. Edward Welles, West Missouri, Dr. Peter Day, Ecumenical Officer, Dr. Clifford Morehouse, former president, House of Deputies of General Convention, the Rev. Massey Shepherd, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, George Shipman, University of Washington, the Rev. Arthur Vogel, Nashotah House Theological School, and the Rev. William Wolf, Episcopal Theological School.
Roman Catholic members were: the Most Rev. Cyril Vogel, Salina, Kansas, the Rev. Thomas Ambrogi, Woodstock College, the Rev. Lawerence Guillot, Central Missouri State College, and the Rev. John Hotchkins, Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
The Most Rev. Joseph Brunini, Natchez-Jackson, attended the Consultation as a special guest. The Rev. Bernard F. Law, former editor of the Mississippi Register who will soon assume the position of Director of the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, joined the Consultation in Jackson. Dean Ralph Wilburn of Lexington Theological School (Disciples of Christ) was an observer for the National Council of Churches.