Anglicans and Roman Catholics agree statement on ecclesiology

From ACNS-

Anglicans and Roman Catholics should see in each other “a community in which the Holy Spirit is alive and active,” the latest communiqué from the official ecumenical dialogue between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church says.

Members of the third-phase of the Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission (Arcic) met in the central German city of Erfurt early this month for their seventh meeting. They chose to meet in the city to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation – it is here that Martin Luther was ordained and lived as a monk.

During their meeting, the members of Arcic agreed the text of a new statement looking at Anglican and Roman Catholic ecclesiology. Walking Together on the Way: Learning to be Church – Local, Regional, Universal, to be known as The Erfurt Document, will be published next year.

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2017/05/anglicans-and-roman-catholics-agree-statement-on-ecclesiology.aspx

Pope Welcomes ARCIC III

From The Living Church and Vatican Radio-

Pope Francis met on Thursday with members of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, telling them that the cause of unity is not an optional undertaking. The 18 Anglican and Catholic members of the commission, known as ARCIC III, are holding their annual encounter this week at an ancient retreat house in the Alban hills, south of Rome. Philippa Hitchen reports.

Meeting with the members of ARCIC III, Pope Francis noted the current session is studying the relationship between the universal Church and the local Church — a question central to his own reform programme — with particular reference to difficult decision making over moral and ethical questions.

More here-

http://livingchurch.org/pope-welcomes-arcic-iii

Anglicans and Catholics expect rewarding talks in South Africa

From Ecumenical News-

Anglican and Catholic theologians meeting in Durban, South Africa from May 12 to 20 are confident their  dialogue will make significant progress in bringing their churches closer.

The theme for the third phase of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission or ARCIC III is to explore the Church as Communion, local and universal, and how to discern correct ethical teaching together.

Archbishop David Moxon, the Anglican co-chair of the talks, said that new collaboration in mission has progressed. Moxon is the Archbishop of Canterbury's representative to the Holy See and director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, Vatican Radio reports.

More here-

http://www.ecumenicalnews.com/article/anglicans-and-catholics-expect-rewarding-talks-in-south-africa-24810

Anglican-Catholic dialogue concludes meeting in Brazil

From Catholic World News-

The official dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion—the Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC)—has concluded the third meeting of its third phase.

The first phase of dialogue (ARCIC I), begun following the Second Vatican Council, focused on the sacraments and the Church and concluded in 1982. The second phase (ARCIC II), which focused on the Church and the Blessed Virgin Mary, issued its last document in 2004.

ARCIC III, which began in 2009 at the behest of Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, is devoted to the “Church as communion - local and universal,” and “how in communion the local and universal Church comes to discern right ethical teaching.”

During a weeklong meeting in Rio de Janeiro, “the members of the Commission engaged in theological analysis and shared reflection on the nature of the Church and those structures which contribute to discernment and decision-making,” according to a joint statement. “A day was spent considering some case studies of ethical issues which members had prepared, and analyzing the ways in which the two Communions have come to their present teaching on these matters.”

More here-

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=17846

From Catholic Culture-

The members of ARCIC III--the third phase of dialogue of the Anglican - Roman Catholic International Commission--have concluded their most recent meeting in Hong Kong.

ARCIC I, which lasted from 1970 to 1981, produced documents on the Eucharist and ministry and authority in the Church; the Anglican Communion and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity issued responses to ARCIC I between 1988 and 1994.

ARCIC II, which lasted from 1983 to 2005, produced documents on salvation, Church authority, morality, the Church as communion, and the Virgin Mary. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith critiqued ARCIC II’s document on salvation in 1988, and portions of the Anglican Communion in time abandoned ARCIC’s 1994 consensus statement that homosexual relationships are not “morally equivalent” to marriage.
More here-

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=14277

One Step Closer to a Universal Primacy

From The Living Church-

When Robert Runcie visited Pope John Paul II in Rome in October 1989 one of his concerns was to elucidate the theme of universal primacy. Just over a decade before in 1977 the third Agreed Statement of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission proposed that a unified Christian Church needed a universal primacy, and the Bishop of Rome was the obvious choice for the role.

The Anglican co-chairman of ARCIC was the Archbishop of Dublin, Henry McAdoo. A couple of years later his fellow Irish Archbishop, John Armstrong, called the Agreed Statement “a time bomb.” But Archbishop Runcie saw potential in the ARCIC statement. Runcie had a vision of a different, reordered papacy exercising a primacy of love and service. Just how much John Paul II comprehended is hard to say.

Pope Benedict XVI’s Sept. 16-19 visit to the United Kingdom, however, offered a series of tasters on what a universal primacy might look like. To begin, even if the British press tried to be cynical, it still gave the visitor acres of coverage. Only a papal visitor on a once-in-a-lifetime journey could achieve that. Inevitably media pundits were talking about how there were things Benedict XVI could do that Rowan Williams could not.

There are other signs that this new kind of papacy is emerging.

Benedict offered apologies. He apologized for the undiplomatic language of Walter Cardinal Kasper, who had told Focus magazine in Germany: “England is a secularized, pluralistic country nowadays. When you land at Heathrow you sometimes feel as though you were in a third world country.” It didn’t mean that he avoided the intent Kasper expressed. He simply found effective ways of putting across the message not to put trust in materialism and secularist ideology.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2010/9/20/one-step-closer-to-a-universal-primacy

Vatican announces new round of Catholic-Anglican talks

From Catholic Review-

The formal theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion will continue and will focus on the relationship between the local church and the universal church, the Vatican announced.

This third phase of work by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission “will deal with fundamental questions regarding the church as communion local and universal, and how in communion the local and universal church comes to discern right ethical teaching,” said a Vatican announcement published Nov. 28.

The announcement was made one week after Pope Benedict XVI and Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, met at the Vatican.

The question of the relationship of the local church to the universal church has been the subject of debate both within the Catholic Church and especially in the Anglican Communion, primarily as it relates to the authority of local bishops and the authority of local churches to make decisions on matters of church practice and on moral issues.

Monsignor Mark Langham, an official at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told Vatican Radio Nov. 26 that ARCIC III would begin with the broad question of the relationship between the local and universal church. Only then, he said, would it begin to discuss specific issues that individual Anglican provinces have dealt with separately such as the ordination of women, blessing same-sex unions and ordaining openly gay clergy.

He said the Vatican and the Anglican Communion hope the first meeting of the new commission would take place before the end of 2010, but both sides still have to appoint theologians to the commission, establish working groups and set a meeting schedule.

ARCIC was established after Pope Paul VI and Anglican Archbishop Michael Ramsey of Canterbury met in 1966.


More here-

http://www.catholicreview.org/subpages/storyworldnew-new.aspx?action=7263