Episcopal Press and News

Joint Commission on Anglican-Roman Catholic Relations Holds Closed Meeting

Diocesan Press Service. December 30, 1968 [72-18]

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The sixth meeting of the Joint Commission on Anglican- Roman Catholic Relations was held December 2 through 5 at the Immacolata Retreat House, in Liberty, Missouri.

Co-chairmen of the meeting, which was attended by ten Anglicans and eight Roman Catholics, were the Most Rev. Charles H. Helmsing, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, and the Rt. Rev. Donald H.V. Hallock, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee.

Matters discussed at the December meeting were not released to the press. This was done, according to the National (Roman) Catholic Reporter, primarily as a courtesy to Bishop Helmsing who had been a member of the Roman Catholic episcopal committee which originated a memorandum calling for curtailment of news from ecumenical discussions.

When the matter was discussed at the meeting in Liberty, participants voted against secrecy in any future meetings, the newspaper said. It quoted one Roman Catholic as saying that the secrecy suggestion had "cast a pall over the entire meeting. "

Discussions between the two communions have been held twice a year since June, 1965. The next meeting is now scheduled for June at Nashotah House, an Episcopalian seminary in Nashotah, Wisc.