One Body and One Spirit--The Papacy and Anglican Ecumenism

The outpouring of affection toward Pope John Paul II, during the final days of his life, and the striking pilgrimage of millions of people to Rome to view his body and participate in his funeral, was an unmistakable sign of the love and respect he garnered from the world, particularly the young. With the election of his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, the Roman Catholic world looks ahead for new hope, leadership, and direction. It is, of course, at this time, a special obligation of the non-Roman Catholic Christian world to hold the new pope and the members of the Roman Catholic Church in our prayers.

This great story of a papal transition raises the question of how Christians from various traditions are, by virtue of their Christian confession solemnized in Baptism, united to each other. In his first address to the world, pope Benedict set forth his commitment to ongoing ecumenical work in rather strong language: “The current Successor of Peter feels himself to be personally implicated in this question and is disposed to do all in his power to promote the fundamental cause of ecumenism. In the wake of his predecessors, he is fully determined to cultivate any initiative that may seem appropriate to promote contact and agreement with representatives from the various Churches and ecclesial communities. Indeed, on this occasion too, he sends them his most cordial greetings in Christ, the one Lord of all.”

These remarks are set against the backdrop of the Second Vatican Council, which, in various ways, reached out not only to the non-Roman Catholic Christian world, but also to believer and non-believers alike. Speaking of the saving work of Christ, the council declared in reference to non-Roman Catholic believers, “The Church recognizes that in many ways she is linked with those who, being baptized, are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter. For there are many who honor sacred scripture, taking it as a norm of belief and of action, and who show a true religious zeal. . . . They are consecrated by baptism, through which they are united to Christ.” (Lumen Gentium, Nn. 2, 15)

Although we may object to the claim that non-Roman Catholics do not profess the faith in its “entirety,” the admission that true Christians are found outside the Roman Catholic Church was a remarkable and important concession at the time and brought the Roman Catholic Church fully to the work of ecumenism. A great deal has happened since that time, and, despite the rather slow pace of institutional change, a great deal of genuine affection and prayer now binds the entire Christian world. Some significant theological work has also been accomplished since the council, unraveling old animosities and misunderstandings and producing some rather impressive joint theological statements.

Anglicanism came to the ecumenical task quite early, in the years immediately preceding the First World War, and has since remained committed to this important work. Long before the modern ecumenical movement, however, Anglicans recognized and openly admitted that they did not perceive or confess their particular ecclesial community to be the only one, or the only right one, or even the best one. Simply, Anglicans have always known that they bear their Christian confession alongside those of other denominations.

For instance, when Richard Hooker, perhaps our finest theologian, was under immense pressure to “unchurch” Roman Catholics at a time, in the seventeen century, when this was a common protestant position, he refused. Although believing that the Roman Church was defective in some ways, he remained convinced that it was a church nonetheless and had within it the instruments of salvation. Lancelot Andrewes, a famous preacher and theologian of the same period, remembered, in his private prayers, the whole church throughout the world. He prayed, “Let us pray for the catholic church; for the churches throughout the whole world; that is, for their truth, unity and stability; that all charity may flourish and truth may live. For our own Church; that what is lacking in it may be supplied; what is unsound, corrected; that all heresies, schisms, scandals, as well public as private, may be removed.” There is something remarkably generous and even beautiful in this position, saying, even saying openly, that we not only acknowledge others but even confess faults in our own church for which we seek correction.

There is a price to pay however. Anglicanism, precisely because it is what one scholar has called an “undifferentiated Catholicism” must constantly seek Christian truth in dialogue with those outside its own boundaries. The typical Anglican appeal to the “undivided church of the first five centuries” means precisely that Anglicanism is not self-insulated or protective. It looks to the very foundations which also belong to other Christians. The fact that Anglicanism was in significant ways forged in the fire of the Reformation means precisely that we cannot dismiss Protestantism, although it is not uncommon to find Anglicans of a high-church bent who play down this identification. The fact that the nineteenth century Catholic Movement within Anglicanism has influenced every aspect of our liturgy and theology means precisely that we cannot dismiss theological development throughout the middle ages all the way to the present time. Anglicanism claims the whole of Christian history, much of which unfolds in the turmoil and cross-fertilization of various religious communities and theological conflicts. While this is a generous and beautiful position, it is not one which can be maintained without hard work and not a small amount of psychological strain. After all, we are denied the peace and rest of knowing that we are right, or that our expression of the faith has a fullness which others lack.

The current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is a modern testament to our understanding of the church. He was raised a Presbyterian, but joined the Anglican Church in his youth. His doctoral dissertation was on the theology of Vladimir Llosky, one of this century’s finest Russian Orthodox theologians. He has written on Karl Barth, the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century, and he has dedicated significant attention to translating the works of Hans Urs Von Balthasar, a great Roman Catholic theologian who was a favorite of Pope John Paul II. More recently he has written a collection of reflections on famous Eastern icons, again showing his deep sensitivity to Orthodoxy. And he continues to produce a stream of deeply penetrating essays, talks, and books on urgent moral questions.

But this all happens in the heart and mind of one person who is situated in the Anglican Communion, and now occupies its most prestigious post. His vocation, like that of all Anglicans, is not one simply of trying to be broadly informed or generously sympathetic to other traditions. Rather, these Christian traditions must, in some measure, be internalized as expressions of Christian truth, which is why there is always a great psychological and spiritual cost in our Christian development. We do not stop as if we have arrived. We continue with open and broken hearts, searching for the One Risen Lord as he is variously revealed in scripture, tradition, history, art, industry, and all aspects of human culture.

There may be no question of the rest of us thinking with the same depth as the current Archbishop. But that is not the point. Rather, Anglicanism is itself a summons to an ecumenical view of the Christian faith. Though rooted in our distinct tradition, we may joyfully receive the pope’s promise of a great ecumenical work, an effort to which every Anglican is summoned by the facts of our history and the mandate of our Lord.

Pray that we may be one.