Ecumenical Officers See Visible Unity Not Organizational
Episcopal News Service. April 13, 1978 [78113]
TULSA, Okla. -- The Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers have approved a collated report from eight provincial consultations which states "the visibile unity we can accept will not be organizational or governmental."
The 111 Ecumenical Officers went on to say in their report that "we do not envisage joining in one church body."
"We understand visible unity to originate in the one Lord Jesus Christ and the people which is His Body," the approved report said. "This spiritual dimension is the source of yearning for unity, and when it is not felt or understood the movement toward unity becomes barren."
Meeting here April 10-13 in conjunction with the ecumenical National Workshop on Christian Unity, the Ecumenical Officers voted to send the collated provincial report to the Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations and to the Executive Council and then to the 1979 meeting of the General Convention in Denver.
The eight consultations were called in response to a 1976 General Convention resolution which asked the Standing Commission to gather information on the Episcopal Church's "present ecumenical posture and involvement, to suggest restatement, where necessary, of those essentials to which the Episcopal Church is committed, and to formulate those priorities and goals which can guide our ecumenical activities in the future."
Eight regional consultations were held between October, 1977 and February, 1978 and these provincial posture positions were collated and forwarded to the Ecumenical Officers' meeting for review and action.
The report noted the various signs by which the Church is made visible, as listed by the Anglican Consultative Council in 1976: confession of a common faith, mutual recognition of membership, interchangeability of ministries, complete eucharistic fellowship, sharing of resources, streamlining of structures, and maintenance and development of diversity.
"We perceive that sharing of resources as a sign, already present in some measure," the report stated, "offers the greatest promise for advance in the immediate future."
The reports from the provincial consultations "show a preference for visible unity with the Roman Catholic Church. " Other churches with whom visible unity would be sought were the Lutheran, the Orthodox, the Presbyterian, the United Church of Christ, churches in the Methodist tradition, and the 10 churches of the Consultation on Church Union.
However, the provincial reports indicated that there is a preference for a bilateral approach to unity -- as in the Anglican/Roman Catholic consultation -- rather than a multilateral consultation -- as in the Consultation on Church Unity and councils of churches.
There was a consensus that dialogue should be continued with all Christian churches and that the Episcopal Church should be open to coalitions with all churches.
The report acknowledged that the churches have often engaged in common projects, such as hunger relief, college campus ministries, and response to disasters. "We cannot, however, allow ourselves to become complacent with such projects of Christian social action but need to recognize that they are only beginnings. Consequently, we also come to see that our small steps into visible unity are contributions toward the goal of a common faith and are actions of common witness to our Lord Jesus Christ with all churches. The fullness of the Church's mission calls for visible unity."
The report concluded, "Our work towards visible Unity requires keeping as a goal our Lord's High Priestly prayer that His church be one."