68. We are agreed that no local church is self-sufficient. Various structures and practices are needed to maintain and manifest the communion of the local churches and sustain them in fidelity to the Gospel. These include local, provincial, world-wide and ecumenical synods and councils. Anglicans and Roman Catholics agree that from New Testament times (cf. Acts 15.6-29), the
Church has sought through collegial and conciliar gatherings to be obedient to Christ in fidelity to its vocation.
69. Anglicans and Roman Catholics agree that councils can be recognised as authoritative when they express the common faith and mind of the Church, consonant with Scripture and the apostolic Tradition. Those councils up to modern times which the Catholic Church describes as â??ecumenicalâ?? are understood as having a binding character, and are for Roman Catholics an authoritative expression of the living tradition. Anglicans historically have only recognised the binding authority of the first four ecumenical councils. While they affirm some of the content of successive councils, they believe that only those decisions which can be demonstrated from Scripture are binding on the faithful.
70. The communion of the Church requires a ministry of primacy at every level of the Churchâ??s life as a visible link and focus of its communion. From early times an ordering developed among the bishops, whereby the bishops of prominent sees exercised a distinctive ministry of unity, as the first among the bishops of their regions. They acted not in isolation from but in collegial
association with other bishops. Primacy and collegiality are complementary dimensions of episcope, exercised within the life of the whole Church. (Anglicans recognise the ministry of the Archbishop of Canterbury in precisely this way.)
71. The office of a universal primate is a special and particular case of that care for universal communion proper to the episcopal office itself. â??The only see which makes any claim to universal primacy and which has exercised and still exercises such episcope is the see of Rome, the city where Peter and Paul diedâ??. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the ministry of the Bishop of Rome as universal primate is in accordance with Christâ??s will for the Church and an essential element for maintaining it in unity and truth. Anglicans rejected the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome as universal primate in the sixteenth century. Today, however, some Anglicans are beginning to see the potential value of a ministry of universal primacy, which would be exercised by the Bishop of Rome, as a sign and focus of unity within a re-united Church.
Growing Together in Unity and Mission An Agreed Statement by the International Anglicanâ??Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission
