Old Catholic Primate Assures Presiding Bishop
Episcopal News Service. November 3, 1977 [77354]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- For the first time in history, the International Bishops' Conference of the Old Catholic Churches in Communion with the Archbishop of Utrecht met in the United States. The meeting was held in Scranton, Pa., the headquarters of the Polish National Catholic Church.
Although the Prime Bishop of that Church, the Most Rev. Thaddeus Zielinski, has suspended communion with the Episcopal Church over the issue of ordination of women to the priesthood, all the Old Catholic Churches in Europe continue to maintain intercommunion with the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
Another first in living memory was a visit of Archbishop Marinus Kok, the Archbishop of Utrecht, Holland, and Metropolitan of the Old Catholic Communion to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin.
Archbishop Kok assured Presiding Bishop Allin that, although the Old Catholics do not accept the eligibility of women for priestly ordination, they have no intention of making this difference the grounds for a schism.
The Archbishop said that Bishop Albert Chambers, who has been providing episcopal ministrations to dissident congregations, came to the Scranton meeting to request that Old Catholics participate in consecration of bishops for the breakaway group. He was permitted to discuss the subject with Archbishop Kok in the presence of most of the Old Catholic bishops, but not in a formal session. The Archbishop replied that this request would not be granted in the current situation.
The Archbishop later told Presiding Bishop Allin that he had read the manifesto of the group and was repelled by the way they seemed to condemn everything. There are already enough schisms in the Christian fellowship and he does not wish to help another one to come into being.
Other matters of common concern included the relations between the Old Catholics and Anglicans in the Lambeth Conferences and the Anglican Consultative Council. It seems strange to the Old Catholics that they are in the position of observers at Lambeth along with a variety of churches which are not in communion with Anglicans. Bishop Allin agreed that rectification of this anomalous situation should be vigorously pursued.