Old Catholic, Episcopal Primates Hold Discussion
Episcopal News Service. October 18, 1984 [84202]
NEW YORK, (DPS, Oct. 18) -- The Archbishop of Utrecht, the Most Rev. Antonius Jan Glazemaker, visited Presiding Bishop John M. Allin at the Episcopal Church Center in mid-September, following a meeting of the International Conference of Old Catholic Bishops, held this year in Florida. Bishop Anthony M. Rysz of the Central Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church in the United States and the Very Rev. Stanley Skrzypek, member of the Anglican-Old Catholic North American Working Group of the International Anglican-Old Catholic Theological Conference, accompanied the Archbishop.
Discussions between the two primates focused on Anglican-Old Catholic relations internationally and a briefing on the current situation of the two churches in the United States.
The Episcopal Church remains in communion with the Old Catholic Churches of Europe, but when ordination of women to the priesthood was authorized by Episcopalians in 1976, the Polish National Catholic Church -- the only official Old Catholic Church in the United States -- ended communion with the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. Two years ago, the Anglican-Old Catholic Theological Conference, meeting in Vienna, requested that a North American working group be formed by the Polish National Catholic Church and the Episcopal Church to discuss the issues of authority in the Church, with particular reference to the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission's Final Report.
The working group, headed by Episcopal Bishop Harold Robinson of Western New York and Bishop John Swantek of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church, has met several times to prepare a report to the international conference meeting next year in Chichester, England.