There are good signs in Anglican-Catholic relations, despite current tensions between the two churches and within the Anglican Communion over women bishops and an openly gay Episcopal bishop, two Episcopal bishops said during a break in a meeting of the Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue in the United States.
Bishop C. Christopher Epting, chief ecumenical officer of the U.S. Episcopal Church and retired bishop of Iowa, and Bishop Edwin F. Gulick Jr. of the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky, Anglican co-chairman of the dialogue, spoke with Catholic News Service during the ARC-USA dialogue's March 8-10 meeting at the North American Paulist Center in Washington.
Tensions within either church have an impact on the dialogue, but not necessarily a negative one, Bishop Gulick said.
Bishop Epting said the question of the Episcopal Church's decision in 2003 to ordain Bishop Gene Robinson, who is living in an openly gay relationship, as bishop of New Hampshire has been part of the dialogue agenda "for the last several years in one way or another."
The question for the dialogue, he said, is "not so much the issue of homosexuality or human sexuality, but the issue of ecclesiology that all of this raises: Who makes decisions for the church and how, and how are they received, and what is a communion-dividing or a church-dividing issue and what is of second tier in importance?"
"I would say that there have been two kind of neuralgic, or potentially neuralgic, moments in the life of the (U.S.) dialogue in the last five years," said Bishop Gulick, citing the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and the tensions in the Anglican Communion over Bishop Robinson's ordination.
"But I would say that what sustained the dialogue through both of those moments has been the deep friendships and the deep knowing that is the result of an enterprise that has existed so long (since 1965)," he added in a March 9 interview with CNS.
"This morning's conversation was a no-holds-barred informing of people we trust, who are Roman Catholics, giving a variety of perspectives on how we as American Episcopalians think, feel and pray our way through this moment. It was the very opposite of trying to look good for the Roman Catholics," Bishop Gulick said.
"We've also had parallel moments earlier in the dialogue several years ago where Roman bishops who were just exhausted, emotionally spent, because of the inordinate hours they were spending on the reality of responding to the history of sexual abuse," he said. "I think what they received when they came to the dialogue was a community of Christian care and support."
"It's not just practicing something called ecumenism --- it's being the body of Christ," Bishop Gulick added. "Among other things, this dialogue is a profoundly significant Christian community for the people who participate in it. It's a community of deep prayer and many lasting friendships."
"The relational is such an important part of ecumenical work," Bishop Epting said.
Asked if they were concerned about the Catholic bishops' staff cutbacks on the national level, which include eliminating two top staff positions in their ecumenical office, Bishop Epting said that "there's a lot of belt-tightening and a lot of downsizing going on across the Christian perspective. ... These are not easy times."
"Obviously we regret it when it happens because it means we can do less," he said. But he said it presents an opportunity to review the dialogues "and focus our attention on what we can do and do well."
"In no way do we personalize it," Bishop Gulick said. "The financial exigency can have the good effect of helping us focus.... It will allow us to let surface the most pressing concerns or the most fruitful work to do."
Bishop Epting said in its current discussions on the 2004 Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission statement, "Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ," the U.S. dialogue is focusing on two areas: "One is how we as a dialogue group can facilitate more local ownership of that document ... in our two communions and together. The other piece, that we're just beginning to address at this meeting, is can we make a common response, as ARC-USA, to that ARCIC document."
Local ownership, or how well dialogue results and official ecumenical decisions of churches become part of the grass-roots understanding and life of their members, has long been a top concern of ecumenists.
Bishop Epting said the new document, "Growing Together in Unity and Mission," by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission -- which became public unofficially this February before the accompanying official Catholic and Anglican commentaries were completed -- "is a very usable document. It tries to summarize for the masses convergences and disagreements between the two communions over the 40 years of these conversations."
Bishop Gulick called it a "unique document' in the history of Anglican-Catholic relations. Other statements have been by theologians, he said, but this is "the first time the bishops from both churches have issued a document in their name and offered it to the churches."
"This is the first time in the history, since the Reformation actually, that bishops of both communions have attempted to draw consensus from 40 years of theological work and then offered that consensus to the church to try to empower a deeper engagement in mission," he said.
"I think most our people would be astounded if they knew how much theological convergence we've reached," Bishop Epting said. "I'm not trying to underestimate or minimize the serious disagreements we still have. But there's been enormous progress. And this tiny, very accessible document at least gets that out there." ---CNS |