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Ecumenical Officers Meet in Seattle

Episcopal News Service. March 27, 1980 [80101]

The Rev. Donald E. Becker

SEATTLE -- The sixth annual meeting of the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (EDEO) was held here from March 10-13, at the same time and in conjunction with the seventeenth National Workshop on Christian Unity. The Workshop originated in the Roman Catholic Church as a response to Vatican I and Pope John XXII, who sought greater dialogue and community among Christians.

The annual meeting of EDEO was held at Trinity Church, Seattle, under the gavel of the Rev. William Lawson, of Lynn, Mass., who was reelected to another term as president of the group.

First concerns of the EDEO meeting centered on the triennial ecumenical program of the Episcopal Church for the years 1980-82. Three strands are involved in this effort: EDEO itself, the Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations (as an arm of General Convention), and the national Executive Council.

The program that EDEO is most directly involved in includes study of Communion of Communions. Plans for study of the book and a continuing education seminar on it (to be held in July) at General Seminary were discussed. The Rev. William A. Norgren, Associate Ecumenical Officer, spoke on the "nine prominent ecumenical activities" for the triennium, and others entered into the discussion which pondered ways in which the national ecumenical officer could get more exposure to diocesan officers. Provincial meetings with him are part of the plan for 1980-82, as well as formation of a speakers bureau and consultations with members of councils of churches and the Roman Catholic Church.

The book Communion of Communions is seen as coming from the search for identity of the Episcopal Church in the ecumenical movement and will be important in the work of the future.

Other areas of triennial activity which are shared by EDEO, the Standing Commission, and the Executive Council include dialogue with the National Council of Churches; education for ecumenism and the World Council position; study of the Consultation on Church Union's (COCU) In Quest of a Church of Christ Uniting and response to it; Roman Catholic and Episcopal leaders planning committees and conferences; survey of local Lutheran-Episcopal relationships; national ecumenical consultation on the local church and its communion with the universal church; and study of the Filioque/ Holy Spirit issue, which will be addressed (along with other matters) in a forthcoming meeting of the international Anglican-Orthodox dialogue.

Strong opinions on the need for education for ecumenism were given, fortified by the results of an attitude survey made at the National Workshop which shows that only about 20 percent of the "people in the pews know much about or care very much" about the ecumenical movement and local pastors are not very far ahead of that level of interest. One speaker on the issue said that this "cannot be done in a vacuum -- we must have a spread out response." A suggestion that each province be asked to have at least five parishes study the COCU document to help in the formal Episcopal Church response (due on June 1, 1981) also was made and may be implemented. Each diocese should have at least one parish do the study in depth, it was stated.

The report of the joint National Association of Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (Roman Catholic) and EDEO was received and accepted. Teams had visited three locations and studied them in depth. One was the diocesan-wide program of covenants in Louisville; another was the Anglican/Roman Catholic joint parish in Tidewater, Va.; and the third was the covenant relationship between Good Shepherd (Episcopal) and St. Joseph's (Roman Catholic) in Ogden, Utah. A booklet, "A Tale of Three Cities," was produced from these programs and was distributed.

Seen at their best, these covenant relationships bring a very comprehensive cooperation between covenanting congregations, in which they act together as one in everything except the consecration at the Eucharists, sharing even the Liturgy of the Word.

But there is a need to come to grips with ecumenical marriages (i.e., marriages between committed Roman Catholics and committed Anglicans) and this will be given the priority level in the work of NADEO-EDEO. "How are people living out an ecumenical marriage now faring?" That question will be addressed to EDEO members immediately and soon reports will be available to assess how such marriages are working, and what the religious practices of the couples are. As many couples as possible are to be approached by ecumenical officers and asked about this.

A second matter of concern was the question of inter-communion, about which nothing is being done at the moment, and there was an undercurrent of feeling that there had been some regression on this question. While some Episcopalians receive at Roman Catholic altars, and visa versa, it is contrary to the official disciplines of those Churches except where there are significant pastoral considerations involved (as per Vatican II). There is no likelihood of much of anything being done on this at the present time.

Father Lawson appointed the Rev. Canon Harold Hultgren of Los Angeles, the Rev. Dennis Odekirk of Sturgis, Mich., and the Rev. Vincent Butler of Peoria, Ill., as Episcopal members of the Joint NADEO-EDEO Task Force.

Father Norgren spoke of the Ecumenical Bulletin, stating that it can be an effective instrument for dissemination of news of ecumenical activities at local and diocesan levels but that a "good feed of items" is badly needed.

In the National Workshop on Christian Unity, members heard that widespread enthusiasm for the U. S. ecumenical movement may be fading but the movement is far from dead. While there are very positive feelings of fellowship, it was stated that "ecumenism has entered a period of lowered expectations."

Complicating the discussions is disagreement over social issues -- abortion, ordination of women, and the many lingering racial matters.

Another current stumbling block is Pope John Paul II, who, according to Archbishop Edward W. Scott -- Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada and the preacher at the opening worship service -- is someone "coming from a country (Poland) where there isn't a need for an ecumenical front. The Roman Catholic Church is the dominant Christian form in Poland." Scott went on to say that Slavic people's concern about reunification has been largely limited to reunion with Orthodox Churches. "The Pope has much still to learn about Western Protestantism" and where ecumenism in the Western Churches has come.

The Rt. Rev. Arthur A. Vogel, Bishop of West Missouri and a long time member of American and international Anglican/Roman Catholic dialogues (ARC and ARCIC), delivered a significant paper, "Christ's Authority and Ours," to the joint NADEO-EDEO luncheon on the second day of the Workshop. Bishop Vogel pointed out that the consensus statements on the nature of priesthood and the Eucharist agreed upon by the ARCIC group are important steps toward unity. But in his paper, he presented views on infallibility that caused great interest and some objections. Vogel's underlying position is that infallibility does not and was never intended to rest in a single person but rather that it is a conciliar function and that the proof of an infallible pronouncement of position is in time: "Did it survive?" Copies of his paper found a ready market among Workshop members, especially Roman Catholics.

Provincial members of the EDEO board, either elected or continuing are: Joseph Bolger, Province I; Isabel Calkins, Province II; Phebe Hoff (also Vice-Chairman of EDEO), Province III; Thomas Tiller, Province IV; Dennis Odekirk, Province V; Herbert Scott, Province VI; Robert Richardson, Province VII; and Harold Hultgren, Province VIII. All are clergymen except the Province II and III representatives.

Meetings in the coming years will be at Boston (1981), Grand Rapids, Mich. (1982), and Louisville, Kentucky (1983).

One of the prevailing "wishes" in the Workshop was a widespread desire for shared Eucharist that does not contravene the respective disciplines of the participants' denominations. Dr. William Rusch, director of ecumenical relations for the Lutheran Church in America, said that while "We have reached agreement on things we viewed as divisive in the past, such as views of ministry and sacrifice, we are far from inter-communion. These agreements (we have) are paving the way for that at some point," he said. This view seemed to be widespread among denominational/church representatives at the Workshop.

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