Archbishop Longley, wanting to sound positive, says that he could \u201cimagine and foresee one of the fruits of our ecumenical engagement as moving towards a deeper understanding of communion and a deeper sharing between our churches \u201d\u00a6 which perhaps would lead to a reconsideration of some of the circumstances.\u201d\u009d That\u2019s all very well-meaning: but since the chances of prelate-speak of this kind being misunderstood by the secular press are about 100 per cent, it really would have been better not to have said it….Archbishop Longley\u2019s fantastical notion that there has been a \u201cdeeper theological understanding of one another\u2019s Churches\u201d\u009d, presumably because of the work of ARCIC, requires a little more attention. What theological understanding would that be? The trouble with ARCIC always was (as a former Catholic member of it once explained to me) that on the Catholic side of the table you have a body of men who represent a more or less coherent view, being members of a Church which has established means of knowing and declaring what it believes. On the Anglican side of the table you have a body of men the divisions between whom are just fundamental as, and sometimes a lot more fundamental than, those between any one of them and the Catholic representatives they face: they all represent only themselves<\/i>.<\/p>\n