Al Kimel of Pontifications has set out the theological issues around ordination and Church unity with his usual clarity and patience.
In a recent post he takes a look at the response of the Anglican bishops of Durham and Salisbury, Tom Wright and David Stancliffe to Roman Catholic Cardinal Kasper, and explains what is at stake in this issue of who may be a bishop. In his address to the bishops of the Church of England (June 2006) Cardinal Kasper pointed out that the leaders any part of the Church chooses are leaders of the whole Church, and have to represent that wholeness of the Church, and the wholeness of its teaching. Its choice of leaders therefore demonstrates the degree to which the Anglican church understands, or does not understand, that it is its wholeness and indivisibility that makes Church’s distinctive witness to the world. The Church is one, and holy, because God is one, and holy.
The context is the desire of Anglican and Episcopalian parts of the Church to operate in isolation from the Church as a whole, and to choose leaders who do not represent the wholeness and distinctiveness of the Church. But the whole Church must insist that such parts do not operate unilaterally, and so it must give these (Anglican and Episcopalian) churches and their leaders a refresher course in ecclesiology and theology, to remind them of the distinct identity of the Christian people and the extraordinary privilege it is to be that people, for the world’s sake.
Here is Al Kimel:
‘Bishops Wright and Stancliffe are convinced that Scripture authorizes the ordination of women to priestly orders, but they disagree with each other on whether Scripture authorizes the blessing of same-sex unions. Bishop Wright was a member of the committee that drew up the Windsor Report, a report which rebukes the American and Canadian churches for breaking from the received moral tradition before the creation of a new consensus within the Anglican Communion. But should not the same reasoning be applied to the question of women’s ordination? Should not the Anglican Communion be rebuked for moving ahead on women’s ordination before the creation of wider catholic consensus. Why, in this age of ecumenism, does the opinions of only Anglicans count? Does it not matter to Anglicans that by embracing the ordination of women to the presbyterate and episcopate they are effectively negating the possibility of ecclesial reunion with the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church?’
Pontifications The death of Anglican/Catholic ecumenism?
