Minnesota Conversations Mark Oxford Movement Founding
Episcopal News Service. June 30, 1983 [83128]
MINNEAPOLIS (DPS, JUNE 30) -- In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Oxford Movement this month, the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota and its Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Robert M. Anderson, are sponsoring a series of "Conversations" with Lutherans and Roman Catholics to discuss the role and definition of episcopacy in the Church and world today.
The Oxford Movement began in England July 14, 1833. It was a revival of the notion of the apostolic character of the episcopate within the Anglican Communion. The Oxford "Apostles" John Keble, E.B. Pusey, and J.H. Newman stressed that a visible church is essential to the survival of Christianity in modern times and that bishops are necessary for the cultural independence and intellectual vitality of the Visible Church.
The Minnesota "Conversations" have included Roman Catholics and Lutherans as well as Episcopalians, for the Oxford Movement has made contributions to other Christian churches as well. In John Henry Newman the Oxford Movement produced a major figure who prepared the way for Vatican II in the Roman Catholic Church. Through N.F.S. Grundtvig, Yngve Brilioth, and Nathan Soderblom the Oxford Movement made important contributions to an awakened sense of the episcopate in Scandinavian Lutheranism.
The "Conversations" have been an open dialogue, a process of discovery that the Minnesota Episcopalians have asked monks of St. John's Abbey and members of the American Lutheran Church to share in. The "Conversations" are being held at St. John's Abbey and University, Collegeville, Minnesota, under the coordination of Dr.R.W. Franklin and the Rev. Dr. Alla Bozarth-Campbell. To enrich the dialogue, Dr. Reginald Fuller of Virginia Theological Seminary joined the April 1982 "Conversation" and Dr. William Petersen of Nashotah House Seminary joined the April 1983 "Conversation". A third "Conversation" is scheduled for April of 1984.