National Ecumenical Consultation Prepares for 1979 Convention
Episcopal News Service. November 16, 1978 [78325]
The Rev. Charles H. Long
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. -- A major review of the policies and goals of the Episcopal Church in the ecumenical movement climaxed in a national consultation held in Farmington Hills, Mich., Nov. 5-9.
The 70 persons taking part represented a cross section of Episcopalians working for the cause of unity in different contexts, as members of the Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations, the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers, participants in official dialogues with other communions, or Episcopal representatives to ecumenical agencies such as the World and National Councils of Churches and the Consultation on Church Union.
In addition, leading ecumenists of the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian and other churches took an active part both in the preparation of study documents and in the consultation itself.
The Rt. Rev. John H. Burt, Bishop of Ohio and chair of the Standing Commission, presided at the consultation. The findings will be incorporated into a major report to the 1979 General Convention of the Episcopal Church.
The meeting was the culmination of a nationwide process of study and discussion under the direction of Peter Day, Ecumenical Officer, and the Rev. William A. Norgren, Assistant Ecumenical Officer. Over the last two years nearly every congregation and agency of the Episcopal Church has been invited to describe and evaluate its ecumenical involvement and commitments.
Important reports presented to the national consultation include new statements of policy adopted by the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church for funding ecumenical agencies, a review of 12 years of progress in Anglican/Roman Catholic relations, summaries of the results of eight regional conferences sponsored by the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers, and a study of documents on which the Church's ecumenical policy has been based since the Lambeth Conference of 1867.
Bishop Burt said this was the first time that Episcopalians engaged in so many different expressions of ecumenicity had been brought together and the first time that representatives of other churches had been given "both voice and vote in helping to frame the ecumenical policy of our Church."
An example of the influence of the ecumenical partners was a defense of the Consultation on Church Union by a Roman Catholic, Father Herbert Ryan, S.J. The provincial conferences have indicated a strong preference for deepening relationships between the Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church, and little interest in COCU as its purpose is understood.
Father Ryan reminded his Episcopal friends of the importance of keeping visible the concern for the unity of the whole Church. "From the Roman Catholic point of view, the withdrawal of the Episcopal Church from COCU would be nothing short of disaster," he said.
In the end the consultation agreed that the dialogues with Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and the churches in COCU were closely interrelated and that priority should be given to the further development of at least these three negotiations.
On the basis of experience gained in dealing with other churches, the consultation was ready to challenge even such basic Anglican assumptions as the Lambeth Quadrilateral. This is a 19th century statement later amended which declares the readiness of Anglicans to seek visible unity only with churches who affirm the authority of Scripture and the Nicene Creed, observe the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, and who maintain or are willing to accept the historic episcopate.
One proposal of the national consultation suggested that the Quadrilateral be revised to place the idea of "bishops in Apostolic succession" in the broader context of the apostolicity of the whole Church. This would make possible closer relations, in-cluding under certain conditions, intercommunion with churches who do not at present have bishops.
The term ecumenical has come to include everything done together with other churches or fellow Christians at every level of the Church's life, from the careful work of scholars in joint theological studies to cooperation in many areas of mission and service and the sharing of prayers and worship in local congregations and in world assemblies. As the ecumenical agenda has grown, however, the goal and coordination of these many activities has become less clear. A major purpose of the national consultation was an attempt to define common goals and to identify the path to follow in order to reach it.
Those present repudiated a popular and outdated idea that the purpose of the ecumenical movement was to reach, as soon as possible, the stage of re-union of churches in an organizational sense, with concentration of power and a uniformity of appearance. It was agreed that what was sought was some expression of visible unity or fellowship as might be expressed in the phrase "a communion of communions." The ecumenical movement today is a search for the ways to make the unity that is God's gift to his people more visible to the Church and to the world.
Three forms of visible unity of increasing importance today are found in churches which affirm and teach the same faith (doctrinal consensus), or share their Christian experience of God's gifts in word and sacraments (spiritual ecumenism), or who work together in witness and service to the world (Partners in Mission).
These three expressions of visible unity were the subject of the three major reports that were issued by the national consultation to be reviewed by the Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations at its next meeting in February.