U.s. Episcopal/Roman Catholic Group Responds to Authority Statement
Episcopal News Service. January 4, 1977 [77424]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The Anglican/Roman Catholic Consultation in the U.S.A. has issued a second response to a statement by its international counterpart on "Authority in the Church," in which the "prayerful hope" is expressed that it "will illuminate the general questions and difficulties that have arisen" since the Authority paper was issued in January, 1977.
The Venice Statement on Authority -- so-called because approval was given in Venice, Italy, in the summer of 1976 -- is a study document issued by the Anglican/ Roman Catholic International Commission. It is the third and final document on the three areas of doctrinal disagreement between the two churches which the international commission was originally asked to examine in 1968. Previously the commission had issued the Windsor Statement on Eucharistic Doctrine in 1971 and the Canterbury Statement in 1973 on Ministry and Ordination.
Immediately after the international commission's statement was issued, the U.S. consultation made initial observations after receiving the paper "with gratitude. "
In this second response, before moving to a discussion of three significant questions arising from the Venice Statement, the 19 U.S. Anglicans (Episcopalians) and Roman Catholics on the consultation make some comments about the title of the document, "Authority in the Church. "
They suggest that a subtitle might be, "Authority of the Ordained Ministries in the Church, Particularly That of the Bishop." Authority, in the document, they point out, mainly has to do with primates and especially the Bishop of Rome (the Pope).
While "the initial paragraphs of the Venice Statement clearly affirm our mutual faith that all authority in the Church is rooted in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit," the U.S. theologians say, "the document quickly moves into the most crucial ecumenical problem in our sister Churches, namely, that of Roman primacy. "
The result is, they say, "other forms of authority in the Church, such as that of the laity and unordained ministries do not, indeed cannot, receive the fuller treatment that they would deserve in a document devoted to the complete exposition of authority in the Church."
Further, the members of the consultation assert that the Authority Statement must be interpreted and discussed in light of the previous statements on Eucharist and Ministry. The purpose of the Eucharist, the Windsor Statement said, "is to transmit the life of the crucified and risen Christ to His Body, the Church, so that its members may be more fully united with Christ and with one another." The ARC response points out that this statement is in agreement with the Venice Statement section on "communion among the Churches."
The ministry of the ordained, the Canterbury Statement on Ministry notes, "is not an extension of the common Christian priesthood, but belongs to another realm of the gifts of the Spirit. " This means that "the special authority of ordained ministers... exists not for its own sake but to build up the 'royal priesthood' of every baptized Christian in the communion of the Churches."
The ARC response notes that "the Venice Statement also carefully points out that this special authority of ordained ministers in the Church is inevitably an imperfect reflection of Christ's authority."
The representatives of the two Churches then proceed to a discussion of three questions which may occur to readers of the Venice Statement: the authority of the laity, deacons, and priests; the nature of the primacy of the Pope considered in the light of present-day Roman Catholic practice and Anglican viewpoints; and the relation of indefectibility and infallibility.
While the Venice Statement is primarily concerned with the authority of bishops, there are references to the "authority of all baptized Christians" and to the role of the laity, deacons and priests in regional and worldwide councils.
The paper points out that provisions for the participation of lay and clergy members in Anglican synodical bodies and in Roman Catholic local, regional and national advisory groups makes "possible shared decision-making and orderly dissent in a way that safeguards the exercise of episcopal authority and reflects the nature of the Church as a Eucharistic community striving to be obedient to the Gospel."
The ARC document then raises questions concerning the nature of the primacy of the See of Rome in the light of current Roman Catholic practice and contemporary Anglican viewpoint.
The Venice Statement says that "the primacy, rightly understood, implies that the Bishop of Rome exercises his oversight in order to guard and promote the faithfulness of all the churches to Christ and one another." This ideal papal primacy, the U.S. consultation members point out, has not always been fulfilled by some bishops of Rome.
The ARC response also discusses some of the changed attitudes and practices by both Churches since the division several centuries ago, and especially the development of the ecumenical movement since Vatican Council II.
With regard to a question that is "troubling" to Anglicans -- papal jurisdiction -- the representatives of the Episcopal and Roman Catholic Churches say that there is an "increasing obvious desire and intent in the Roman Catholic Church to resolve matters within a nation or a local church through the bishops' conference or by the particular bishop" rather than by the intervention of the Bishop of Rome.
The third question raised by the ARC paper has to do with the relation between indefectibility and infallibility. The Venice Statement, the theologians point out, affirms the faith of both Churches that "Christ will not desert his Church and that the Holy Spirit will lead it into all truth." This is what is meant by describing the Church as indefectible. Over the years the task of "maintaining the whole Church in the truth" fell to the Church of Rome and its bishops.
As for papal infallibility, the ARC response says that it "is shown to be related to the infallibility of the whole Church in the observation that when the pope teaches infallibly he does 'no more but no less than express the mind of the Church on issues concerning divine revelation.' "
When the Church gathered in ecumenical council issues judgments on fundamental articles of faith, those statements "are protected from error and are authoritative for the whole Church."
The co-chairmen of the consultation of Episcopalians and Roman Catholics are the Rt. Rev. Arthur A. Vogel, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri (Kansas City), and the Most Rev. Raymond W. Lessard, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah (Georgia).
On Dec. 28, the 19-member group issued a report on their 12 years of consultation in which they noted "a significant and substantial unity of faith."