The Catholic League was formed to promote reunion. Many do not know this, but the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began in 1908 as an Anglican initiative to promote unity between Anglicans and Catholics; only from 1936 was it decided, under the influence of a French priest, Abbé Paul Couturier, to widen its scope to embrace all Christians.
After the Appeal for Christian Unity at the 1920 Lambeth Conference, Cardinal Mercier of Belgium and Lord Halifax gathered a group of theologians into what became known as the Malines Conversations, producing a plan for a Uniate Church similar to that proposed in the reign of Charles II. The talks ended when the Archbishop of York visited the Pope, the first Anglican archbishop to visit the Pope, and explained that Lord Halifax had no official standing.
It was not until the Second Vatican Council that the time became more auspicious, and through the visit of Archbishop Michael Ramsey to Pope Paul VI in 1996, the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC)_was created “to work for the restoration of complete communion of faith and sacramental life”. Archbishop Ramsey had already indicated what form he thought it might take.
Building on the plans of past centuries he suggested: “Unity could take the form of the Anglican Communion being in communion with Rome, having sufficient dogmatic agreement with Rome, accepting the Pope as the presiding bishop of all Christians, but being allowed to have their own liturgy and married clergy and a great deal of existing Anglican customs….”
Very informative piece (though I’d love to see documentation. After all, this side of the story hasn’t exactly been common knowledge over the past 4 centuries). Thanks for posting.
Yes, much of this history is new to me. I suppose it makes sense that in the centuries of uniatism in the East that some Anglicans and Catholics conceived of such an arrangement for the English Church. But, this has never been a strong parallel as the Eastern Catholic Churches are co-eval with the West, that is their liturgies and lines of succession are not dependent on the West and are just as ancient. This is not the case, of course, for Anglicanism. It is perhaps just a technicality, but the English Church is or was part of the Latin Church.
There was certainly left out the article a lot of detail about Christian Unity Week or the “Octave of Christianity” as it was once called. I have written a shot bit on the topic here: http://blog.ancient-future.net/2008/01/18/the-octave-of-christian-unity/
If the Graymoors and Eastern Churches are any indication, perhaps piecemeal returns to communion are the only way unity can ever be achieved. At least, I suspect this is what Benedict might believe.
If we wait til the very last member of any separated body is ready for communion in order to act, that day will likely never come.
The motion to move unity between Christian is a agreeable thing to be. This unity will further make people united and have understanding what faith really is. Plus it will lessen the conflicting beliefs and tradition between Christians. This also connotes the welcoming of beliefs and hospitality that the Christian virtue promotes. Let us support this unification and further spread our faith and religion. Let us repair the division that the time has brought us and also make actions to further repair our lives. If you’re looking to get rid of debt- good for you, and how a lot of people do that is through debt consolidation loans. Debt consolidation loans make it so that people can bring all of their loans under one payment. One payment a month – whether its secured loans or not, or if you have collateral, whatever, it’s a good way to get creditors off your back and make an effort to get free of all debt; to no longer have to worry about the credit cards, student loans or other debts that are weighing you down. Be cautious when applying for [url=http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/11/02/secured-loan-answer-unwanted-debt/]debt consolidation loans[/url], as with any other tool it’s to be used responsibly.
I knew some of this historical background, but not all, so I join in thanking Kendall for posting this instructive little historical review.
This article only touches briefly on the history of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (aptly placed between the Feast of the Confession of St. Peter on Jan. 18th and the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on Jan. 25th). The idea started here in America, with an Anglo-Catholic group of monks, the Graymoor Fathers in upstate NY, who sponsored the week of prayer specifically for the reunion of Anglicans and Roman Catholics. However, they got tired of waiting for this reunion to take place, and they later converted to Rome en masse. Much like the respected sisters at All Saints Convent in Baltimore did in September.
David Handy+