Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission Reaches Consensus on Authority
Episcopal News Service. January 25, 1977 [77017]
LONDON, England -- An international commission of Roman Catholics and Anglicans has announced that is has reached a consensus on authority in the Church.
The 21-member Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission has issued a 16-page study document which says that in any future union between the two Churches some type of "universal primacy" should be exercised by the "See of Rome, the city where Peter and Paul died."
However, the statement, in carefully worded terms, lays special emphasis on the pastoral, rather than the authoritarian, role of the Papacy. It points to changing views among Roman Catholics in those areas which cause most disquiet to Anglicans.
Observing that it was "precisely in the problem of papal primacy" that the historical divisions between the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches "found their unhappy origin," the commission co-chairmen said in a preface to the statement that "though we have not been able to resolve some of the difficulties of Anglicans concerning Roman Catholic belief relating to the Bishop of Rome, we hope and trust that our analysis has placed these problems in a proper perspective."
There is no equivalent to a Pope in the 46.7 million-member Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church in the United States is a part. The Archbishop of Canterbury is considered the titular head of the 26 independent national or regional churches which make up the Anglican body, but his authority is strictly spiritual.
The statement on authority in the church, published January 20, is the third and final document on the three areas of doctrinal disagreement which the commission was originally asked to examine in 1968. Its previous agreed statements have been on eucharistic doctrine (Windsor, 1971) and on ministry and ordination (Canterbury, 1973). The document on authority (Venice, 1976) was approved by the commission last summer in Venice, Italy.
The statement presents a detailed scriptural and historical analysis of the development of the doctrine of authority in the Church, as exercised by the "episcope" (bishops), by General Councils, and by one bishop who speaks in the name of his fellow bishops (primacy).
"The only See which makes any claim to universal primacy and which has exercised and still exercises" such episcopal authority "is the See of Rome, the city where Peter and Paul died," the statement says.
"It seems appropriate that in any future union a universal primacy such as has been described should be held by that See."
The co-chairmen of the commission -- Anglican Bishop H. R. McAdoo of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin, Ireland, and Roman Catholic Bishop Alan Clark of East Anglia, England -- said, "The consensus we have reached, if it is to be accepted by our two communities, would have, we insist, important consequences. Common recognition of Roman primacy would bring changes not only to the Anglican Communion but also to the Roman Catholic Church...."
After locating the foundation of all authority in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the document then discusses Christian authority, authority in the Church, authority in the communion of the churches, authority in matters of faith, the authority of ecumenical councils, and the authority of "universal primacy," or papal primacy.
The statement makes clear that it "does not wholly resolve all the problems associated with papal primacy." It notes, for example, that "Anglicans find grave difficulty in the affirmation that the Pope can be infallible in his teaching." It adds the reassurance that the limitations placed on the Pope by tradition and church council "preclude the idea that the Pope is an inspired oracle communicating fresh revelations, or that he can speak independently of his fellow bishops and the church or on matters not concerning faith or morals."
"In spite of the difficulties," the commission concludes, "we believe that the statement... represents a significant convergence with far-reaching consequences."
The document, "Agreed Statement on Authority in the Church," may be ordered from United States Catholic Conference, Publications Office, 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D. C. 20005 (50 cents a copy, 40% discount for 10 or more copies.