ARCIC II Publishes Salvation Statement
Episcopal News Service. January 22, 1987 [87016]
NEW YORK (DPS, Jan. 22) -- Jan. 22 is the publication date for Salvation and the Church, the first agreed statement to emerge from the Second Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC II).
Salvation and the Church is the result of three years' work by the Commission on the doctrine of justification, a particular cause of contention at the time of the Reformation. Justification is considered in the context of the doctrine of salvation as a whole, which in turn involves discussion of the role of the Church in Christ's saving work.
The 32-paragraph statement claims agreement on the essential aspects of the doctrine of salvation and of the Church's role in salvation. As a note which precedes the text points out, the statement "is not an authoritative declaration by the Roman Catholic Church or by the Anglican Communion" but rather a document presented by the Commission for evaluation and discussion within the two communions. The note adds that the Commission "will be glad to receive observations and criticisms made in a constructive and fraternal spirit."
Undertaken at the request of both churches, the exploration of the doctrine of justification was impelled by the view that the subject of justification and salvation is so central to the Christian faith that, unless there is assurance of agreement on this issue, there can be no full doctrinal agreement between the two communions. Work on the statement was completed at the Commission's fourth plenary meeting, held Aug. 26-Sept. 4, 1986 at St. Michael's College, Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales.
The co-chairmen of ARCIC II, Bishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Roman Catholic Bishop of Arundel and Brighton (South of England), and Bishop Mark Santer, Anglican Bishop of Kensington, an area within the London Diocese, have written a preface to the statement which cites, as does the note, the May 1982 visit by Pope John Paul II to Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, at which the leaders of the two communions celebrated the one baptismal faith we all share and gave thanks for the Final Report of the first Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission (ARCIC I). Murphy-O'Connor and Santer state "The primary task of ARCIC II is to examine and try to resolve those doctrinal differences which still divide us...The purpose of our dialogue is the restoration of full ecclesial communion between us."
They add that their work was "greatly helped by the statement Justification by Faith, agreed in 1983 by the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Consultation in the ISA (Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1985). This illustrates the interdependence of all ecumenical dialogues -- an interdependence which is an expression of the growing communion which already exists between the churches."
The document explores four areas: "Salvation and Faith," "Salvation and Justification," "Salvation and Good Works" and "The Church and Salvation." In its conclusion, the Commission states, "We are agreed that this is not an area where any remaining differences of theological interpretation or ecclesiological emphasis, either within or between our Communions, can justify our continuing separation. We believe that our two Communions are agreed on the essential aspects of the doctrine of salvation and on the Church's role within it...We offer our agreement to our two Communions as a contribution to reconciliation between us, so that together we may witness to God's salvation in the midst of the anxieties, struggles and hopes of our world."
Salvation and the Church is being published in the United Kingdom jointly by Church House Publishing and the Catholic Truth Society and distributed in this country by Forward Movement Publications for the Episcopal Church and the Office of Publishing and Promotion Services of the U.S. Catholic Conference for the Roman Catholic Church.
Copies are available for $1.60 plus postage from: Forward Movement Publications, 412 Sycamore Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202; phone (513) 721-6659.
The next plenary meeting of the Commission will take place at Palazzola, near Rome, from Sept. 1-10, 1987.