Beyond Anglicanism
Diocesan Press Service. November 8, 1965 [XXXVII-1]
Ralph S. Dean, Executive Officer, Anglican Communion
"Beyond Anglicanism" is the title of a lively and readable book by Professor A. T. Hanson and I can recommend it even though it has one or two factual errors. At the moment, though, I use only the title, since it was much in my mind while attending a meeting of World Confessional Organisations held in Geneva under the auspices of the World Council of Churches.
I know, of course, that the Anglican Communion is not strictly a confessional body, for we have no central authority nor any specifically Anglican confessional document to which we owe allegiance. Nonetheless, it is at least a family of Churches which has its own particular traditions and its own part to play in the life of the Church Universal.
The point of all this is to say that it is imperative that our Communion should take seriously its ecumenical involvement and seek to fulfil its vocation in an ecumenical setting.
The meeting in Geneva represented a serious attempt on the part of a number of so- called "Confessional Church" leaders to grapple with the whole problem of the relations between Confessional Churches or families of Churches, as together they share in Christ's mission to the world. It is true that underneath the practical matters is the overwhelmingly important one of reaching that unity which is God's will for His Church. But the imperatives of the present world situation will not allow us to defer common action until that goal is reached. Thus the consultation struggled with the question of what we are called to do together now.
Certainly there are questions which in the contemporary missionary situation cry out for examination. Basic to them all is this question: "How does the Church confess Christ in a true and contemporary way, both in its witness and its structure?" Other questions include such as these: Do our separate "Confessions" hinder our common task? How can we define theologically the relationship between the One Faith, in which all are baptised, and the "Confessions" which certain Churches or groups of Churches feel called, in obedience to the Gospel, to make separately? Are we sufficiently aware that our historical Confessions and structures often tend to become obstacles to a relevant witness and service to the world?
At the Consultation, there was a disconcerting mass of evidence that many young people in despair of the Churches are turning away from participation in their life to seek spiritual fulfilment through commitment to secular movements. The voices of the younger Churches were urgent about such matters. They see Confessionalism and denominationalism as products of the West with which they have perforce become saddled. They cannot see that the past history of the Church in the West should be allowed to shackle them in their own work of mission.
Here are two quotations from a recent statement issued by the Youth Department of the World Council of Churches:
"Confessional movements are asked to take care that any future development of confessional youth bodies should not endanger ecumenical encounter on regional and world levels. We would ask whether the limited opportunities for young people to meet on these levels are not best utilized by ecumenical meetings; and would ask the Churches to do their utmost to provide opportunities for their young people to participate in the widest range of ecumenical activities."
"A number of Churches and Confessional Organisations have repeatedly said that they did not intend to hand down confessional or denominational instruction to their younger members; however, it is evident that such positive statements are only rarely and slowly translated into action. This does not indicate bad faith on the part of the Churches, but rather the magnitude of the task: it does not ask for judgment, but for common thinking on how we can make progress together. "
But it is obvious, painfully so, that those problems cannot be solved overseas unless they can be solved at home too. Thus my title could well be enlarged to read "Beyond Confessionalism" for it is not only Anglicanism that is involved. It is not that I am advocating "the disappearance of the Anglican Communion" any more than a Presbyterian or anyone else would want to speak of the disappearance of his Church. We all have traditions, indeed treasures, which are important, precious, and given us to safeguard, but somehow, as we learnt at Geneva, we must learn to safeguard them by sharing them. Perhaps above all we must be realistic rather than idealistic about our present situation.
Dr. Visser t'Hooft, to whom the whole Christian world owes so much, summed up the views of most of us who were present at Geneva in the following propositions: "We believe that to think and act as if the historic Confessional Church families represent the only spiritual reality to be taken seriously is to live in the 'pre-ecumenical' age.
"On the other hand, we believe that to think and act as if the fully ecumenical age had been reached in which confessional disagreements have been overcome and in which it is possible to think only in terms of an integrated world-wide Christian community, is premature and therefore also unrealistic.
"It is characteristic of the present period, of Church history that the Church lives 'between the times', when the Confessions remain the main expressions of its life, but in which these Confessions have all to answer the ecumenical questions:- What is the relevance of the faith that all the Confessions hold in common for their relationship to each other and for the unity and mission of the Church of Christ today? And how can they express in common witness and new ecclesiastical structures the unity in Christ which exists already and for which they are responsible to our Lord for the sake of the world?"
I wonder if in fact this is not a commentary on the final paragraph of "Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ" .....
"In substance, what we are really asking is the rebirth of the Anglican Communion, which means the death of many old things but - infinitely more - the birth of entirely new relationships. We regard this as the essential task before the Churches of the Anglican Communion now."
At any rate, I commend it to your thoughts and prayers.