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Archbishop Challenges Communion Policy

Episcopal News Service. October 25, 1979 [79306]

WASHINGTON -- The Archbishop of Canterbury has called upon the Roman Catholic Church to change its policy that bars Catholics and Anglicans from receiving communion at each other's altars.

Archbishop Donald Coggan, who preached the main service at the Washington Cathedral on October 14, said at a press conference following the service that such a policy is an impediment to evangelizing "the unbelieving world."

He pointed out that Anglicans and Roman Catholics agree "in so many of the basics of the Christian faith" that the two streams of Christianity should authorize intercommunion.

"A great many Roman Catholics in different parts of the world are now receiving holy communion from Anglicans and I hope that we will soon see the Roman Catholic Church take cognizance of this," he said.

Archbishop Coggan said that he differed with Pope John Paul II on the Roman Catholic Church's policy, but so did many Catholics.

His sermon to some 3,000 persons in the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul -- the Washington Cathedral -- was primarily pastoral in tone, in which he spoke of his deep concern for evangelizing the world.

"The church is not a club," he said. "If so, it is a travesty of what it should be. It is not a comfortable club, but a base of operations from which to serve the world. . . .

"I would like to gather up this great congregation and set it down in the slums of Calcutta," the Archbishop said. "We cannot shut our eyes to the needs of people like these, a large part of whom know nothing of the love of God.

"We must be willing to give our lives to this," he declared, "or we are not entitled to be called Christians."

At the press conference, Archbishop Coggan said concerning the ordination of women to the priesthood: "What I hope is that the Roman Catholic Church will take note of the fact that there are great numbers of men and women, not the least within their own orders, who themselves desire (ordination of women)."

He endorsed the revision of the Book of Common Prayer as approved by the Episcopal Church's General Convention in September. He also expressed approval of the Episcopal Church's policy against ordaining practicing homosexuals.

This sermon at the Washington Cathedral was, in effect, the farewell address by the 70-year-old Archbishop to the Anglican Communion's American branch. He will retire January 25, 1980 after five years as the spiritual leader of the world's 65 million Anglicans.

The Archbishop also delivered the 1979 Reinicker lectures at the Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Va.

The Rt. Rev. Robert A.K. Runcie, Bishop of St. Albans, will be installed as the 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury next March 25.