Runcie Visits Rome in Continuing Search for Unity
Episcopal News Service. October 17, 1989 [89185]
Like his three predecessors, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, made an official four-day visit to Pope John Paul II in Rome to advance a continuing Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue seeking deeper unity.
That desire for unity was underscored in a common declaration signed at the end of their sixth session, October 2, by Runcie and the Pope. "We solemnly recommit ourselves and those we represent to the restoration of visible unity and full ecclesial communion," the document said. (Full text of the statement is in the News Features section.) Speaking of a joint pilgrimage during a service at the Church of St. Gregory, and its "historic connection with St. Augustine's mission to baptize England," the statement also underscored "the difficulties facing our dialogue at the present time," especially the ordination of women.
The statement acknowledged that "the question and practice of the admission of women to the ministerial priesthood in some provinces of the Anglican Communion prevents reconciliation between us even where there is otherwise progress towards agreement in faith on the meaning of the Eucharist and the ordained ministry." Since the dialogues between the two churches began in 1966, no one thought the path would be easy, the statement said. "While we ourselves do not see a solution to this obstacle, we are confident that through our engagement with this matter our conversations will in fact help to deepen and enlarge our understanding."
The Archbishop was given a place of honor at a papal mass at St. Peter's on Sunday and exchanged a greeting with the Pope during the passing of the peace. At a sermon at an Anglican church later, Runcie said, "We must never take our separation for granted.... We should never allow our divisions to become tolerable, or worse still, comfortable. The walls of our division do not reach as high as heaven," he said. It is a scandal that Anglicans and Roman Catholics must celebrate two eucharists to worship one God, Runcie concluded. The service at All Saints' Church was disrupted by supporters of Ian Paisley, the outspoken Protestant leader from Northern Ireland, who called Runcie an "archdemon."
Among the topics Runcie and the Pope discussed was another important element in the search for unity -- a way to acknowledge the spiritual primacy of the Pope for all Christians. Before his trip Runcie said in an interview with an Italian Roman Catholic magazine that more Anglicans were beginning to accept the idea of "universal primacy" for the Pope, what he called "a presiding in love for the sake of the unity of the church."
At a news conference in Rome, Runcie said that his comments were not meant to imply any political ramifications, only spiritual ones. Runcie was criticized back home in England and was the object of protests in Rome by those who took his comments as a threat to the constitutional basis of the Church of England. Paisley said that Runcie was "a traitor to all of Protestantism" and was "trying to dethrone the queen and enthrone the pope."
Members of the Movement for the Ordination of Women in England expressed "anger and disappointment" that the final statement implied a choice between women and unity. Bishop Stanley Booth-Clibborn of Manchester said that closer unity must be based on truth and, for a majority of Anglicans today, "a whole priesthood of men and women is a matter of truth."
In public comments, the Pope implied that his role could not be merely symbolic and that the role of bishops in any reunited church would be "exercised in communion with the See of Peter."
The idea of the Pope's leadership has been a topic of theological discussion for a commission of Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians. Their report, which outlines possible theologicalagreements, was approved at the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops last summer. A response is expected soon from the Vatican.
Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning of the Episcopal Church released a statement expressing indebtedness to the Archbishop "for his ability to articulate with clarity the urgency of our search for unity." Browning called Runcie's trip to Rome "a milestone on a winding and sometimes rocky path" but added that it's important the churches "press on, taking advantage of the distance we have come."
The Presiding Bishop also clarified a quote attributed to Runcie, that some provinces of the Anglican Communion went "too far" in ordaining women. Browning quoted the Archbishop as saying "that the action of some Anglican provinces to opening the order of priesthood and episcopate to women seems to the Roman Catholic Church to have gone too far." Not all Roman Catholics would agree with that assessment, Browning pointed out -- many "have been heartened by the progress in this province of the Anglican Communion in the recognition of the gifts of women in ordained ministry." Further study of the issue "will help lead us into closer study of the ministry of all women," Browning concluded.