What particular areas of work have the Holy Father and Archbishop of Canterbury asked ARCIC III to study?
The Holy Father and the Archbishop asked ARCIC III to “address the important issues involved in the emerging ecclesiological and ethical factors making that journey more difficult and arduous”.
In other words ARCIC III is being asked to reflect on the nature of the Church as understood by Anglicans and Catholics and to consider the way that the Church arrives at authoritative teaching, especially about moral issues.
On that basis ARCIC III will look at two connected areas of theology: the Church as Communion, local and universal and how in communion the local and universal Church come to discern right ethical teaching.
I wish I could say something different, but this process seems more than a bit of a sham – only one RC from Africa; only one Angliocan from Africa; a Canadian and an American on the Anglican side, even though they were not supposed to have been appointed to ecumenical discussions. Rome seems to have been taken in somehow. A great shame.