Mending the Broken Trunk: Journey of Unity Between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churchs

The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christianity sponsored on 27 January 2003 the International Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which started meeting since 2004 (January 27-30). The first meeting took place in Cairo, Egypt; the second in Rome, Italy; the third in Etchmiadzin, Armenia; the fourth in Rome, Italy; the fifth in Maarrat Saydnaya, Syria; the sixth in Rome, Italy, and; the sevent in Antelias, Lebanon.  

EIGHTH MEETING (Rome, January 25-28, 2011)

Host
Catholic Church in Rome

Members
Present

Catholic Church and Oriental Orthodox Churches--the Antiochian Syrian Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church (Catholicosate of All Armenians), the Armenian Apostolic Church (Holy See of Cilicia), the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.

Absent

The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church

Points of Theological Agreement

Current Meeting

1. An intense communication among the churches, especially in times of crisis, in the pre-Constantinian period
2. A common sense of responsibility towards the other churches. Exchange of letters and synodal decisions provided a means of conveying encouragement and challenge to one another as well as theological clarifications.
3. The universal phenomenon of Christian asceticism, present from the earliest times, found expression in the monastic movements, emerging from the late third century in all parts of the Christian world. This include a fruitful exchange of monastic spiritual writings emanating from the Christian Orient, even across doctrinal divisions.

From Previous Meetings (2003-2009)

1. The sacramental nature of the Church

2. Apostolic succession in priestly service

3. Impelling need to bear witness to the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the world.

JOINT DOCUMENTS
Nature, Constitution and Mission of the Church (2009)

An Anglican Journey Back Home

In recent times the Holy Spirit  has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually as well as corporately. The Apostolic See has responded favourably to such petitions. Indeed, the successor of Peter, mandated by the Lord Jesus to guarantee the unity of the episcopate and to preside over and safeguard the universal communion of all the Churches, could not fail to make available the means necessary to bring this holy desire to realization. POPE BENEDICT XVI, Anglicanorum Coetibus

The ecclesia anglicana (English Church), later shortened into the word "Anglican" when referring to the members of this communion, later also came to be known as the "Anglican Church." With over 80 million members (according to The Anglican Communion Official Website, the Anglican communion stood as the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The faith of the Anglicans had foundations coming from the Universal Church.

History

Of the many provinces of the Anglican Communion there are four with unbroken history stretching back before the 16th century--the Church of England, the Church in Wales, the Church of Ireland, and the Scottish Episcopal Church. All can still be found in Great Britain. 

When he broke with the Church of Rome in 1534, and declared himself, through the Act of Supremacy, Supreme Head of the Church of England, King Henry VIII never formally repudiated the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. He strongly resisted thereafter any association made of the English Church with the Continental Protestant Reformation.

Meanwhile the authority of the Church of Rome over the Catholic churches in England continued to be forbidden by Parliament. The Act of Supremacy in 1534 declared the King as "the only Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England." And the Treason Act of 1534 made it high treason, punishable by death, to refuse ot acknowledge the King as such. Finally Pope Clement VII excommunicated Henry and the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cramner. 

Mary I, Henry's daughter with first wife Catherine of Aragon, became crowned Queen Regnant of England and Ireland. All through the years before she became Regnant Queen, Mary remained a faithful Roman Catholic. And on 22 July 1553, after reigning Queen of England Lady Jane Grey got deposed by popular support, Mary legally assumed the crown. Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester, crowned her Mary Queen of England. 

Her first Parliament abolished Edward's religious laws through the Statute of Repeal Act of 1553, restoring Catholic Church doctrine to its 1539 form. The reestablishment of communion with the Church of Rome became official in 1554. 

When Mary died in 1558, her half-sister succeeder her as Queen Elizabeth I of England. Elizabeth I, a Protestant, then worked to break the communion of the Church of England from Rome. In the Papal bull Regnans in Excelsis Pope Pius V declared Elizabeth excommunicated on 25 February 1570. 

Ordination of Women Priests

One single hurdle that made it extremely difficult for the Church of England to reunite with the Universal (Catholic) Church came in the form of the ordination of women to priesthood. The first women priests ordained in the Anglican Communion came from the Anglican Diocese of Hong Kong and Macao. They were Li Tim-Oi in 1944 and Jane Hwang and Joyce Bennett in 1971. As of 2010, four provinces (Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Churches of Australia, Canada and New Zealand.) have ordained women bishops, the first being Barbara Harris in 1989 for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

In the apostolic letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis, Pope John Paul II emphasized that "the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful." This teaching is embodied in the canon law (number 1024) and the Catechism of teh Catholic Church ("Only a baptized man validly receives sacred ordination.").

Return to the Fold of the Universal Church

On 4 November 2009 Pope Benedict XVI issued an apostolic constitution (Anglicanorum Coetibus) that allows groups of former Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church as members of his personal ordinariates. In this structur, former Anglicans can preserve elements of distinctive Anglican spirituality. 

Standing before his flock on 14 November 2010, Anglican Bishop Keith Newton of Richborough announced his plan to go back to the fold of the Church of Rome. In a pastoral letter to priests and people in his diocese, Newton informed his flock that he will resigh as bishop effective 31 December 2010. He said that most Anglicans have prayed for  union with the Catholic Church. But this union becomes less likely with the ordination of women. "Although we must still pray for sacramental and ecclesial unity between our Churches that now seems a much more distant hope," he wrote. 

As of November 2010, more Anglican bishops went back to the apostolic fold. They include Right Reverend Andrew Burnham (Bishop of Ebbsfleet) and five junior bishops (retired reverends John Broadhurst, Keith Newton, Edwin Barnes and David Silk).

On 1 January 2011 three bishops--John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton--who resigned from the Church of England were received into the Catholic Church at Westminster Cathedral in London in a simple ceremony enough to welcome them back to the Mother Church. From January 1 through 14, they will live as lay Catholics, and will be ordained Catholic priests on January 15. More than 600 Anglicans are expected to follow these bishops.

CLOSER LOOKS
Members of St. John the Baptist Anglo-Catholic Parish (Sevenoaks, Kent). (Take a closer look.)

RELATED DOCUMENTS
Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus

Sources

Mark Greaves: Anglicans prepare for a dive in the dark," Catholic Herald 1 April 2011
Steve Doughty: "Church of England 'is like failing coffee chain' says bishop," Mail Online 9 November 2010.
___: "Anglican Bishops move to Catholic Church," Rome Reports, 7 January 2011.   

That They May Be One

Before Jesus faced arrest, He prayed for his people to the Father: "And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so THAT THEY MAY BE ONE just as we are... I do not ask you that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one... As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth." (John 17:11,15,18-19)

From the first century through the early part of the 11th century, there was one universal Christian church spread throughout the Roman Empire in the Weast and in the East. But in 1054, the Western and Eastern churches of Christendom broke off. Churches in the East refused to recognize the primacy of the church in Rome after the church in Jerusalem fell, and the Apostle Peter as the first bishop of Rome. 

Today, the Western Church became officially known as the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, and continued to uphold the primacy of the bishop of Rome as the successor of Peter as the first pontiff. It has the largest Christian membership worldwide with 1.1 billion of around 2 billion Christians. The Orthodox churchers have a membership of around 250 million, with the Russian Orthodox Church having the largest membership of 165 million.

An Ongoing Work of Unity

 On 22 September 2010, the 12th Joint Theological Commission for the Dialogue Between the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches met in Vienna, Austria discuss theological issues in an effort to pave the way for the unity of the oldest Christian churches in history. Metropolitan John of Pergamon (Patriarchate of Constantinople) and Archbishop Kurt Koch (president of Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity) co-chaired the commission.

But the road to unity remains tricky and treacherous. Both Churchers were concerned that essential Christian teachings can get watered down in the process. Specifically, some Orthodox may fear they will be asked to accept a type of "papal primacy" that their conscience cannot accept. Some Catholics may also fear that Orthodox faithful may be admitted in communion with the Church without accepting essential doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Still the developments in the past years provided a unique opportunity for the universal Chrisian Church to be one once more, and once again answer the desire of the Lord Jesus Christ for the unity of His Body as written in the Gospel of John. That these two old churches were able to put themselves together in a dialogue for unity is something to behold, a positive sign for the unity of Christendom in the future.

Threats of Division

While schism maybe necessary in order to preserve the truth of Christianity and protect it from heresy, the Holy Spirit can work wonders when Christian dialogues of unity like this occur.

Growing threats around the world also invite Christendom to strengthen each other in unity. Jesus warned in Luke 11:17, "Every kingdom divided against himself will be laid waste and house will fall against house." And divisions in Christianity appear to be where Satan succeeded in its attack on the Kingdom of God. 

In the West, secularized Christianity have gained dominance. The culture of death is growing and spreading. Anti-Catholic winds are gathering as misguided interpretation of the Bible created more and more divisions even among the ranks of Protestants. Meanwhile, Islam is undoubtedly gaining wider influence. 

A New Common Path

The 12th Joint Commission finds a potential promise in the idea of a unified universal Church with the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church as "sister churches" with the Pope as "titular" head.

But the roads to travel still remained long. The Orthodox churches prized their decentralized structure, and may find it hard to accept a central headship in the bishop of Rome. Meanwhile the Roman Catholic Church remained for millenia as an essentially heirarchical organization. Pope Benedict XVI though have shown openness in bringing back to the fold those who have left the Church for no fault of their own, just like the Anglicans who protested the ordination of women in the Church of England.

Koch said that "the basic discussion is about how these churches lived in the first millenium and how we can find a new common path today.