Posted on 03/05/2007 9:46:13 AM PST by jacknhoo
Catholics, Anglicans discuss reuniting Tue Feb 20, 2007 5:08AM EST By Michael Perry
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Issues surrounding a possible reuniting of the Catholic and Anglican churches under the pope are discussed in a 42-page statement currently being prepared, church leaders said on Tuesday.
The statement, titled "Growing Together In Unity and Mission. Building on 40 years of Anglican and Roman Catholic Dialogue", looks at common ground and differences between the two churches and is expected to be published later this year.
"Our ultimate desire is to achieve full visible unity," said Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane John Bathersby, co-chair of the International Anglican Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) which is preparing the statement.
"The statement is put forward to foster discussion and reflection," Bathersby told Reuters.
Bathersby said the statement, which was leaked by British media on Monday, does not offer a conclusion on unity.
He said it was still incomplete and was awaiting a formal response from the Catholic Church and was being discussed by the Anglican Church meeting in Tanzania.
Bathersby said the discussion on reuniting the churches under a universal primate, the Pope, has been going on for 35 years.
"The separation that exists at the present time is a scandal to people outside the church who say why can't these Christians get together," Bathersby said.
"These things cause difficulties for the mission of both Christian churches. We realize we need to seek some agreement, some common ground so that we give a better witness to people."
The Anglican co-chair of IARCCUM, South African Bishop David Beetge, said unity was desired by both churches, but was a long-term vision.
"All we have said are there are certain areas, after 40 years of theological study, where we believe we have a degree of compatibility and agreement," Beetge told Australian radio.
"I think unity is a long, long, long, long, long journey. Of course we pray for it, of course we long for it. I would be surprised if I saw anything in my lifetime," he said.
CHURCH DIFFERENCES
Bathersby said areas where the churches differed included the ordination of homosexuals and women, which has occurred in the Anglican Church, and their authority structures.
The Catholic Church has a hierarchical system with Pope Benedict the ultimate authority. In the Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury is the focal point but each province has autonomy.
"They have a system of divested authority ... within that structure they sometimes find it difficult at times to hold together," said Bathersby, referring to the split in the Anglican Church over the ordination of homosexuals.
Bathersby said the issue of a universal primate also attracted differing opinions, with some Anglicans believing only Jesus Christ can be the head of the church.
If the Catholics and Anglicans could agree on the issue of a universal primate, Bathersby believed that the Pope would become the head of a united church.
"That would seem to be the idea because the Pope is the leader of a billion Roman Catholic Christians and the Anglican community ... is a much smaller church, I think its about 80 million," he said.
"If they were thinking were would they find this universal primate, it has been recognized in the old statement that all roads lead to Rome."
Interesting angle on this. At the outset, it seems as if it's just the gay clergy/gay marriage which is the cause of attention turning back to Rome, but really, the gay agenda has served to illustrate that the Anglican heirarchal structure is inherently weak where there is no primate over the entire union. Centralized primacy could have brought finality to the issue. Instead, one province can practice/ administer a faith much different than the next. The Roman Catholic Church is the only international faith united in faith and tradition under a universal primate. Although we have some rogue bishops, Rome has the absolute last word in all things, and the authority to comprehensively define the faith.
I hope and pray for unity between our churches!
Both churches have problems with homosexuality in their ranks and the discipline thereof.
Mankind, in general, has problems with homosexuality. Thank God, for Pope Benedict XVI:
"Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency toward an intrinsic moral evil and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder."
"The use of the sexual faculty can be morally good" only in a marital relation framed by procreation, he added. "A person engaging in homosexual behavior therefore acts immorally."
Agreed. Just pointing it out because there have been discipline issues and we shouldn't be pointing out splinters in others eyes when planks exist elsewhere.
It's one thing to have a problem with homosexuality - which can be a problem in any organization, even a business, because of the tendency of gay men to form a "gay mafia" that effectively eliminates all non-gays - and another thing to explicitly approve of homosexuality, "gay marriage," etc., as the Episcopal Church does. That's a major difference.
That was a very good post, Rutles4Ever. I hope and pray, too, for the unity.
No disagreement there.
There will always be problems with homosexual activity, as well as other sinful activity. The problem is changing the deposit of faith to change the definition what is sinful and what is not. So long as the teaching of the Catholic Church preserves the apostolic teaching that homosexual activity is sinful and immoral, it has not apostasized.
Actually the Anglican Communion is taking action against those prelates who encourage the sinful lifestyle. Last month in Tanzania, the primates gave ECUSA an ultimatum. From our point of view, action has been slow in coming, but for a church, the consequences have been swift.
The Anglican Communion is organized much in the same way as Eastern Orthodoxy. Both are collections of autocephalous national churches symbolically led by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Ecumenical Patriarch, respectively. At the behest of Archbishop Williams, Anglican leaders are drawing up a covenant, or treaty, that would better define the terms of relationship among the provinces.
There is no way that the General Convention of the American Episcopal Church would ever agree to affiliate with Rome. The anti-Rome rhetoric that comes out of the mouths of some of these American Episcopal bishops and high-placed lay people is unbelievable.
It does seem that there is no way, the American Episcopal Church would ever agree to affiliate with Rome. I pray for the rehabilitation of the the American Episcopal Church, for them to turn from their error.
This could be another poke that turns into the straw that broke the camels back. The pro-gay left wing TEC has no hope or desire or need to "reunite" with Rome. Those who do want to realign with Rome know what needs to be done.
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