From ground breaking to breaking new ground.

Tanner, Mary

In the 1980s, churches in Britain and Ireland moved into new and closer relationships of covenants and Local Ecumenical Partnerships. New Ecumenical Canons were passed by the Church of England, guiding the relationships of eucharistic hospitality and shared, though not interchangeable, ministry with other churches at the local level. Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Moravians, Roman Catholics and Reformed were involved in these new local partnerships. This closer fellowship in faith, life, service and mission was to a large extent made possible because of the convergences and even consensus on some issues expressed in Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (BEM). BEM became the charter for ecumenical developments. Similarly, BEM provided important building blocks for many innovative European relationships, among them: the Meissen Agreement bringing the German Churches and the Anglican Churches of Britain and Ireland to a new stage of relationship on the way together towards visible unity; the Porvoo Communion between Nordic and Baltic Lutheran Churches and Anglican Churches of Britain and Ireland; and the Reuilly Agreement between Anglicans and French Reformed and Lutheran Churches. These European agreements, which issued in closer shared life and mission, were understood as steps on the way to full visible unity. A consistency regarding the vision of the goal of the ecumenical journey was provided by the multilateral unity statements of successive assemblies of the World Council of Churches, most particularly the Canberra Statement, The Unity of the Church as Koinonia: Gift and Calling.

The ecumenical scene in England today is very different from that of thirty, years ago. There has been a growth of Black Majority Churches, Community and Evangelical Churches, some of which are partners in Churches Together in England and Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. There is evidence that while in some places Christians of different traditions share in worship and ministry and increasingly act together to serve local communities, yet progress toward the visible unity of the Church has slowed down and enthusiasm for pursuing that goal has evaporated. Some churches retreat into their own identity, the passion of the 60s and 70s for visible unity has weakened, and many seek simply co-operation in service.

The question of where are we going in the ecumenical movement, what is the Church that God calls us to be in and for the world's sake and God's sake, is a question that we can't afford to let go of. If we do, we shall make little sense of the journey we have been on and the new relationships we have already entered. But more importantly, we shall lose sight of Jesus' prayer that his disciples be one so that the world may believe. Visible unity is divine intention and divine will.

In the introduction to The Church: Towards a Common Vision (TCTCV), the authors say that their hope is that the text will serve as "an occasion for the churches to reflect upon their understanding of the Lord's will so as to grow towards greater unity" and that "by challenging all of the churches, will make a substantial contribution towards the full realization of unity." This is a crucial aim and certainly one which is very relevant to the churches in Britain and Ireland, not least of all to Anglicans. This document ought to help us re-engage with this fundamental ecumenical question about the unity of the Church.

The great strength of TCTCV is the way it sets the Church and the Church's task in the context of the world and creation, touching on issues of justice, ecological justice and peace, as well as relations with those of other faiths. The compelling vision is not of a self-absorbed Church turned in on itself but of a Church facing outward in service to each other's needs and the needs of the world. The movement to visible unity in one faith, eucharistic fellowship and ordered life is not for its own sake but for service and mission. The text inspires because, as the opening chapter says, the Christian community finds its origin in the mission of God for the saving transformation of the world. "The Church is essentially missionary and unity is essentially related to mission." The final chapter, "The Church: In and for the World," raises issues of our Christian response together to religious pluralism and reflects on the implications of new moral challenges for unity. It shows that the Church has important things to say about helping those without power to be heard, and about the response together to human suffering, to violence and the threats of war, as well as about the Christian support for those in authority who promote justice, peace and the care of the environment. It is in light of this vocation that the unity, the visible unity of the Church, is an imperative not optional extra.

TCTCV is also important for the churches in Britain and Ireland because of its continuity with earlier Faith and Order work of convergence. It draws together the insights of: Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (BEM) and the responses of the churches to BEM, Confessing the One Faith, as well as preliminary work on authority and moral decision making. In many places it refers to the statements on unity from the assemblies of the World Council. It also documents the work of bilateral dialogues, helpfully showing the compatibility of multilateral and bilateral insights about the Church. The text is thus an invaluable harvesting of the work of the past; and this continuity is important for it affirms the relationships of closer communion entered into by churches in Europe on the basis of this earlier work.

There is continuity with many earlier insights about the nature and purpose of the Church. The biblical notion of koinonia is once more seen as foundational for understanding the ground of the Church's unity and the call to visible communion; the Church is described as "sign" and "servant" of God's design for the whole world; and the three constitutive elements of visible unity remain fundamental--unity in faith, sacraments and ministry. But there is newness too. Important issues that still need facing are not ducked: the threefold ordering of the ministry, episcopacy and apostolic succession, but, seen in the overall holistic vision of the document, even these issues seem less formidable and more capable of resolution. Without greater convergence on these issues progress in some relationships will hardly be possible.

Continuity is important but TCTCV also breaks new ground in what is said about unity and diversity. Picking up the Canberra Statement's emphasis on the need for the gospel to be proclaimed in the languages, symbols and imagery relevant to particular lives and places, TCTCV re-affirms that legitimate diversity is gift. This is important because often to claim a commitment to visible unity is heard as a commitment to some form of rigid uniformity. At the same time TCTCV is equally clear that "there are limits to diversity; when it goes beyond acceptable limits it can be destructive of the gift of unity." It points out that what is lacking when it comes to determine legitimate diversity, are both common criteria for such discernment as well as mutually recognized structures for discernment.

The section headed "The Gift of Authority in the Service of the Church" marks, perhaps, the most important advance. The emphasis on authority as gift is a healing way of approaching the controversial subject of authority in the Church. It is the authority of the crucified Christ that is lodged in the Church, an authority different in character and exercise from worldly authority. This sets the scene for all that is said about the "service" of authority, making for a more sympathetic approach to the role of a ministry of oversight, seen as a ministry of co-ordination, a ministry with the task of maintaining continuity in apostolic faith and unity of life, and with oversight of the Church's ministry, understood as diakonia. The personal ministry of oversight is never to be exercised in isolation but "collegially and communally." However, for the sake of good order, there is need for someone to summon and to preside over gatherings. This leads to the question of how "a personal ministry serving to foster and promote the unity of the Church at the Universal level might be understood and exercised?" TCTCV goes further in presenting the issue of a personal ministry of oversight at the world level than earlier multilateral agreed statement have done and opens a way for creative discussion in the future. By including the matter of authority and a serving ministry of oversight, Faith and Order has provided the churches with a more complete ecclesiological framework to consider in the years ahead and taken further the discussion about the essential requirements of unity that have been consistently stressed for the last 50 years.

TCTCV is important for the churches in Britain and Ireland and for Anglicans worldwide with its commitment to visible unity and its filling out of the portrait of the sort of unity God calls us to live in and for the world. It is important because it re-affirms convergences already expressed in past work, thus supporting those new relationships entered into in the last decades of the twentieth century. It is important for its fresh insights, not least of all on a ministry of oversight as well as for the big vision of Church.

TCTCV invites churches to respond to five sharp questions and to consider where differences remain, whether these are really church dividing issues or sometimes matters of legitimate diversity which would enrich life in unity. TCTCV ought to help us in Britain and Ireland to answer the fundamental questions posed at the beginning of the document: "How can we identify the Church which the creed calls one, holy, catholic and apostolic?" and "What is God's will for the unity of this Church?" It might just provide a new impetus and enthusiasm for moving closer together in faith, life and witness. It is now up to those leading the ecumenical movement in Britain and Ireland to ensure that churches respond to TCTCV both individually and together.

DOI: 10.1111/erev.12047

Mary Tanner is a member of the Church of England, and a long-time member of the Commission on Faith and Order: She was active in the commission as it produced Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. She was later moderator of the Commission, and presently the WCC President for Europe.