Release on Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation Meeting
Diocesan Press Service. January 28, 1972 [72-2x]
NEW YORK, N.Y. (DPS) --- An accord on Eucharistic doctrine recently made public by a group of Roman Catholic and Anglican theologians was warmly welcomed by American representatives of the two Churches at a four-day meeting in New York City, January 21-24.
The group, headed by Roman Catholic Bishop Charles H. Helmsing of Kansas City -St. Joseph, and Episcopal Bishop Edward R. Welles of West Missouri, is named the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation, consisting of representatives officially appointed by the authorities of the two Churches in the United States. Commonly known as ARC, it has been meeting since 1965.
The international document concludes, "It is our hope that in view of the agreement which we have reached on Eucharistic faith this doctrine will no longer constitute an obstacle to the unity we seek."
Urging wide study of the agreed statement, the ARC representatives recommended that a set of principles for ecumenical doctrinal study developed at the New York meeting be used by American Churchmen in such study. They warned against using past doctrinal formulas as "slogans to distinguish friend from foe, " proposing instead that they be used as a basis for dialogue aimed at a contemporary understanding of the truths they embody.
At the end of the meeting the delegates had a two-hour private conversation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who with Pope Paul VI had appointed the international commission and had given permission for the publication of its report, entitled Agreed Statement on Eucharistic Doctrine.
Archbishop Ramsey was in the United States to give a series of lectures at Trinity Institute, New York City.
On Saturday, January 22, Archbishop Iakovos of the Greek Orthodox Church in North and South America, met with the Anglican - Roman Catholic Consultation for a luncheon at which he expressed his desire and hope for an eventual unity of all Christians in the common chalice.
[For Comment on the Windsor Statement, List of participants at the ARC meeting, Doctrinal Agreement and Unity, and the Agreed Statement on Eucharist Doctrine, please contact the Archives - Ed.]