CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Anglicans: the “Primates meeting” in Dublin”About seven or possibly eight Anglican Primates will not be attending the Dublin meeting that will open tomorrow because of the presence of the Primate of the Episcopal Church and of recent developments in the American Episcopal Church. And there are a few we are not yet sure whether they are coming or not”. A statement released by the Anglican Communion reports Anglican Communion Secretary General Canon Kenneth Kearon’s interview with BBC radio in which he explains the reasons for a partial boycott of the “Primates meeting”. The Primate’s Meeting, which 38 world Anglican Primates are invited to attend, was established in 1978 as an opportunity for prayer and deep consultation. The Meeting opened in Dublin on January 25, ongoing until Sunday. The only other occasion for encounter is the Lambeth Conference, held once every ten years. Anglican primates opposing same-sex unions are not attending the Meeting in Dublin in reaction to the marriage between two lesbian Episcopalian priests at the beginning of the month, approved by a bishop of the American Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church triggered the divisions between the provinces pro and against same sex-unions in 2003, when it consecrated its first openly gay bishop. According to the statement released by the Anglican Communion, “Those Primates who said they’re not coming as part of an objection to the Episcopal Church and other developments have reiterated their commitment to the Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury”. “The agenda of the meeting is not known”, states the communiqué. “The Primates have been asked to examine the big issues facing the Communion”. In response to a question about what would be the outcome of the meeting, Canon Kearon said the Primates’ Meeting “is not a decision-making body. It is a body which issues guidance and indicates direction. It has a lot of moral authority based on the fact that it is composed of Primates but it isn’t a body that votes on resolutions, it doesn’t have that kind of procedural or constitutional nature”.Anglicans/Catholics: letter of two bishops to the faithful In a joint letter to all their clergy, published on the website of the diocese of Brentwood, the Catholic bishop of Brentwood Msgr. Thomas McMahon, and the Anglican bishop of Chelmsford Rev. Stephen Cottrell, have urged Anglicans who are considering joining the Ordinariate, to make contact with them “so that during this time of transition nothing could be seen to impede our friendship, unity and mission”. In the Letter the bishops declare that in the area of Essex and East London “priests and people within the Church of England are considering joining the Ordinariate to best continue their Christian journey within the Roman Catholic Community”. They add: “We give thanks for their contribution to the life of the Church of England, and we pray for the new life they will have and the gifts they will bring to the Catholic Church”. The bishop said that the setting up of the Ordinariate, a structure corresponding to that of the diocese representing the Anglicans converted to Catholicism, “does not in any way deter us from the ultimate goal of that visible unity within the church that is Christ’s prayer and which is shared by all Christian people”.Lutherans: Pope, “looking at the future with hope”Working and praying for Christian unity, even though today the target of the full communion between Churches appears to be more “distant”, also given the different understandings of life and the family. It is the reflection of the Pope conveyed in the address to the Delegation of the German Lutheran Church, received in Papal audience on January 24, on the eve of the closing of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The Pope said he shares “the concern of many Christians over the fact that the fruits of the ecumenical endeavour, above all in relation to the idea of Church and ministry, are still not sufficiently received by the ecumenical interlocutors”. However, the Pope remarked, “we look with hope at the future”. “We are confident in the fact that, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the ecumenical dialogue, as important instrument in the life of the Church, will serve to overcome this conflict”. For Benedict XVI, the dialogue with the Lutherans includes the problems “that arose recently in relation to the protection and dignity of human life, as well as the urgent questions on the family, marriage and sexuality, which cannot be silenced or neglected so as not to endanger the ecumenical consensus attained up to now”. “It would be deplorable” the Pope underlined, “if new confessional differences emerged in the new important questions on life”. In his conclusion the Holy Father said, “We implore the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to be able to take further steps toward the unity that we long for, and to not be satisfied with where we are now”.
