Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, September 25, 1979
Page 11
Whatever the reason for the conclave, there is much movement below the
surface in the field of ecumenism--the search for common religious ground-
especially between Roman Catholicism and the mainline Protestant churches.
Ecumenism will be very much in evidence during the Pope's trip to the U.S.,
with the scheduling of several meetings between the Pontiff and representa
tives of Protestant and Jewish groups.
Ecumenism received a big boost too in September with the election of Bishop
Robert Runcie as the Church of England's 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury.
Bishop Runcie replaces Dr. Donald Coggan, who retires when he reaches his
70th birthday next January. The 57-year-old Bishop Runcie, incidentally,
is the Bishop of St. Albans.
Within hours of his election, Bishop Runcie told reporters he wanted to
meet Pope John Paul and leaders of other churches as soon as possible,
hopefully within his first year of office. According to Anglican sources,
the two leaders have important things to discuss, the chief being progress
towards unity and intercommunion.
The two churches entered into a serious dialogue 10 years ago with the for
mation of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. This team
of learned theologians has issued three agreed statements on the eucharist,
ministry and ordination, and authority, and these have still to be approved
by the Pope and the Archbishop.
The toughest nut to crack for the Anglican-Catholic theologians has been
the question of papal primacy. They issued a joint statement on church
authority in 1976 but failed to agree in the area of papal authority.
Now there appears to be some movement, as yet unspecified, on this thorny
issue and other controversial points. A joint statement from London on
September 14 said that "Real convergence took place, which if it fell
short of complete agreement on these highly divisive issues, encouraged
the commission to hope that it might be able to offer its final report to
the authorities of the two churches within two years."
Lutheran Rebellion Now Focal Point of Unity Drive
Perhaps the most important milestone in the church reunity movement will
occur next June 25th. On that date, Lutherans around the world will be
honoring the 450th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession. A report from
the Religious News Service gives the ecumenical significance of the coming
anniversary:
"A document that proved unsuccessful in reconciling Lutherans and Catholics
in the early days of the Protestant Reformation is getting new attention
as a possible basis for further progress in the modern ecumenical movement.
/It is/ the Augsburg Confession /which/ was drafted by Philip Melanchthon
on behalf of the Protestant territories of northern Germany for presenta
tion to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530.
According to a RNS release dated September 21, "there were two basic pur
poses Melanchthon had in mind in drafting the confession--to set forth the
principles of the Lutheran movement and to seek to demonstrate that they
were in agreement with essential doctrines taught by the Church of Rome.
It was divided into two parts: Articles of Faith (I-XXI) and articles of
the Roman Abuses, which have been eliminated in the Reformed Churches