Ecumenical Officers Meet in Memphis
Episcopal News Service. March 9, 1976 [76089]
The Rev. Robert Horine, editor of The Church Advocate
Memphis, Tenn. -- Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers, meeting at Calvary Church February 23-25, previewed and responded to a draft of the Joint Commission on Ecumenical Relations' report to General Convention.
More than 100 representatives of 73 dioceses also heard from Presiding Bishop John Allin and House of Deputies President the Rev. John Coburn. Many ecumenical officers stayed in Memphis Feb. 25-27 for the interdenominational National Workshop on Christian Unity. Its prime speakers were Dr. Richard Shaull, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Dr. Robert T. Handy, Union Theological Seminary.
After hearing JCER Chairman the Rt. Rev. John Burt, of Ohio, outline resolutions to be presented to General Convention, the ecumenical officers voted their approval of the proposals.
Only one resolution was debated at length. It calls for joining a Consultation on Church Union proposal for mutual recognition of members through our common baptism with water in the name of the Trinity. Before EDEO approved the JCER resolution, some members expressed concern for possible canonical problems in attempts to transfer denominational memberships and in granting communicant status.
Other resolutions approved:
Call for General Convention to set up a special conference to restate, if necessary, the essentials to which the Episcopal Church is committed, for guidance in ecumenical activities.
Espouse the Lund Principle of the World Council of Churches that calls for Christians to act together at all levels of life in all matters "except those in which deep differences of conviction and Church order compel us to act separately."
Suggest that General Convention establish a Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations to replace JCER.
Commend the continuing use of the COCU Eucharist "along with the several cautions mentioned." (But EDEO turned down a resolution asking General Convention to authorize use of Holy Eucharist Rite III as a principal Sunday service. Utah representatives -- not JCER -- had asked this change for the benefit of a yoked congregation of Episcopalians and United Church of Christ members.)
EDEO also passed various resolutions that, in effect, endorsed and encouraged further dialogue with various Christian bodies, and recommended entering into communion with some others -- the Church of South India, the Church of Bangladesh, the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar.
Several resolutions approved were aimed at encouraging ecumenical activity at parish and diocesan levels -- including covenant relationships with Roman Catholics -- and gaining support for ecumenical work from bishops and their dioceses.
Members of EDEO received, but were not asked to express themselves on, a draft statement on "Historic Episcopate and Apostolicity." Bishop Burt said the statement would be given General Convention, but not as a resolution.
The statement defines the historic episcopate as "an effective sign and means of the continuity of the Church in apostolic faith and mission," and goes on to say that "any plan for the reunion of the Church should... preserve a succession in the ordained ministry which assures the fulness of episcope as a gift of God."
"We acknowledge, however," the statement goes on, "that apostolicity has many strands. We see a genuine apostolicity in those churches which, while preserving a continuity in apostolic faith, mission and ministry, have not retained the historic episcopate.
"This acknowledgment is based in part on our appreciation that many episcopal functions may be preserved in a church which does not use the title 'bishop', provided ordination is always done in it by persons in whom such a church recognizes the authority to transmit ministerial commission."
The statement then quotes a World Council of Churches paper entitled "One Baptism, One Eucharist, and a Mutually Recognized Ministry," which said many churches see the episcopacy as a "pre-eminent sign of the apostolic succession" but "hold as incompatible with contemporary historical and theological research... the notion that the episcopal succession is identical with and comprehends the apostolicity of the whole Church."
Meeting with the ecumenical officers during their final session, Bishop Allin called for continued honesty in the ecumenical movement. He said that just as persons getting married must not expect to change each other into their idea of the ideal spouse, neither should churches in the ecumenical movement expect each other to be other than who they are.
It is important, he said, "to remember what we are called to do, not what we have the opportunity to do." He said it is better to keep things simple "than to get caught in our own sophistication."
'It is," the Presiding Bishop said, "a lot of faith, a lot of commitment, a lot of Grace that allows us to put up with one another." The focus should be on "asking the Lord what he wants us to do and going and doing it." Sharing in this idea underlies the success of the ecumenical movement, he said.
Bishop Allin said the Church did not need critics, but those who were willing to affirm. He commended EDEO for its success in this area and said, "I thank God for you."
Dr. Coburn, speaking at the second annual EDEO meeting's banquet, said, "We are trying to find ourselves again as a national Episcopal Church."
In this search, he said, "we must be more responsive to the Spirit and less to structures," and "if we find ourselves more holy... then we are going to be given power to do what the Holy Spirit wants us to do."
Dr. Coburn said the search for unity in the Church is similar to our efforts as individuals to be unified, "whole." In our quest for unity, he said, we must not insist on our position prevailing. And, he added, we must be willing to say, "I'm sorry."
"In a trust relationship things change," and we help each other to be who we are. Structures are changed, renewed -- "structures follow the Spirit."
Nationally, he said, the country is drifting, apathetic, even despairing. The Church should "raise our hearts in joy... celebrating."
We should, Dr. Coburn said, affirm differences because it is the tension that brings the power in the Church.
He expressed hope that the next few months would be a period of reconciliation.
At other times, EDEO heard its chairman, the Rev. John Bonner of Tennessee; Mrs. Alex Drapes, Montana's ecumenical officer and a member of JCER; Peter Day, national ecumenical officer; the Rev. Charles Long, secretary of the WCC for the United States, and John Fisher, Memphis, former WCC staff member, who reported on the WCC's Nairobi meeting; the Most Rev. Raymond Lessard, Roman Catholic bishop of Savannah, and the Rev. Robert Wright, professor at General Theological Seminary, who discussed the ARC agreed statement, "The Purpose, Mission of the Church;" and the Rev. John Hotchkin, representing the Roman Catholic Bishops' Committee for Interreligious Affairs, who discussed the possibility of Anglican ordination of women as priests and bishops.
Fr. Hotchkin said ordination of women would certainly change the Anglican-Roman relationship, but "our commitment to dialogue will not be deterred... we've already made too much progress... we're not going back."
Mr. Fisher said he gained from the WCC meeting the idea that we ought not want to overcome our cultural differences because they enrich the Church.
Fr. Long said previous councils had been aimed at bringing Christians from various nations and cultures together, then at keeping them together. The Nairobi council, he said, seemed to be aimed at preparing the churches "to suffer together... to share one another's burdens."
EDEO ended its meeting by re-electing Fr. Bonner as chairman and electing the Rev. John Langfeldt, Nevada, the Province VIII representative, as vice-chairman.
The National Workshop on Christian Unity opened with a love feast at Calvary Church, with representatives of the downtown Memphis churches presiding.
In the sermon, the Most Rev. Jean Jadot, apostolic delegate of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, said, "Some observers say there is a malaise over the ecumenical movement at the present time. If there is, could it be that too much is expected from too few in too brief a period of time?
"Not to recognize the noteworthy distance traversed and the remarkable progress achieved since the movement began is to deny the obvious. Do not grow faint or weary or lose patience in the difficult task before you...."
Dr. Handy spoke twice on "Issues of Religious Freedom and Christian Unity that Relate to our Pluralism." He reviewed the history and causes of pluralism in American Christianity and the subsequent search for unity.
He pointed out that there is pluralism not only among Christian bodies, but within them and even within the ecumenical movement -- "the diversity at every level of Christian life is one of the reasons why there are no short cuts to unity. "
"Though many will perhaps be not quite content to have it so," Dr. Handy said, "it may be that the goals of Christian unity should be pluralistically stated...."
" Most if not all of us are grateful for the commitment of churches and ecumenical agencies to religious freedom and to the further exploration of its meaning, but the ecumenical enthusiasts among us must recognize that unitive possibilities must be seen in relation to the principle of religious freedom.
"Sometimes careless expressions about the total reunion of the Church seem to be both unrealistic and unwise, for they may raise false expectancies," he said.
Dr. Handy said that "it is in trying to live and work together in serving God and meeting the desperate needs of humanity that our churches may grow together into a kind of unity that is largely hidden from us now."
Dr. Shaull, speaking on "Issues of Pluralism and Unity that Relate to American Society," said there are signs that Western culture is disintegrating and we are confronted with a situation in which making sense of life calls for growing subjectivity -- relying on individual, internal authority rather than on an external authority.
"We can expect an explosion of diversity and pluralism" in individuals and institutions, he said. This may even signal the beginning of a new dark age, the professor went on.
But, he said, a hopeful sign is that as this process goes on, we are also discovering we live in one world with common problems. There is "the possibility of release of life and energy... an opportunity to celebrate diversity... an opportunity for a rich and rewarding life."
There is no question of whether we will live in a world of conflict, he said, only a question of whether we will be transformed or destroyed.
The encounter of the ecumenical movement, Dr. Shaull said, brings together some kindred spirits who are "ready to break open the future and live in it now." Perhaps not the Western institutional Church, he said, but Christianity, with its history of radical response, may be the means by which new life comes to us in the dying culture.
The workshop included seven ecumenical seminars. One on "Experiences of Christian Unity at the Local Level" was moderated by Mrs. Lee Winchester, Tennessee, secretary of EDEO.
![[thumbnail: The Rt. Rev. John H. Burt...]](/e-archives/ENS/photographs/thumbnails/76089_2_thb.jpg) |