AN ANGLO-CATHOLIC ECCLESIOLOGY FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Good afternoon, all you Toads and Toadettes,

Here is a little something from an Anglican news service blog that is worthy of comment. I am not sure where it might fit in Avery Cardinal Dulles' Models of the Church, but I find it heartening to see some genuine theological work being done amongst the Anglo-Catholic set. I paerticularly like the bit in paragraph eight, "Separation brings woundedness."
Have a read and comment if you dare, and we'll see what happens.

Yr. Obed, Serv.,

R. Toad, DD, LSMFT


By Stevens Heckscher Ph.D.
Special to VirtueOnline
www.virtueonline.org
July 24, 2007

As a response to the recent pronouncement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on churches separated from Rome1, I set forth the following twelve propositions as the starting point for an ecclesiological position based on the Anglican Tradition. I believe that they are for the most part consistent with the general tenor of patristic thought.

1. Christ established one Church, and only one2 . The actions of sinful men cannot establish any other. Relationships may be severed, communion broken, even Christian communities anathematized by other Christian communities, but there is still only one Church.

2. According to the Creeds, this Church is "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic." We may not say that part, or parts, of the Church have these marks but other parts do not. The marks pertain to the whole Church.

3. The so-called "branch theory" often (and in my opinion mistakenly) considered to be the Anglican position, is therefore false. I, personally, have never subscribed to it, and I cannot find it in any Anglican formularies. We may not say such things as, the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Church (for example) are "branches" of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

4. Baptism confers membership in the Church, thus membership in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, for there is no other. We may not say (for example) that baptism performed in the Catholic Church confers such membership, but that! baptism in Protestant Churches does not. Baptism cleanses fro! m sin, g rafts the recipient into Christ, and confers membership in the Church. All baptized persons are therefore members of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church 3.

5. Unfortunately, schism is a fact, and has been for most of the history of the Church, especially since the Great Schism between East and West from the eleventh century. Since the Reformation, schism has become very widespread.

6. The schisms of the second Christian millennium are fundamentally different from those of the first millennium. Those of the first were generally over differences in Trinitarian or Christological doctrine, and were dealt with by the Councils. Those of the second millennium were more ecclesiological, generally beginning with breakdown of communication (as in the eleventh century), or with responses to excesses of authority or practice. Responses generated reactions, resulting in schisms. Many of the schisms of the second millennium persist to this day, and what follows herein is concerned with them.

7. Schism creates separated Christian communities. Among these communities, in varying ways and to varying degrees, there are breaches of communio in sacris, differences over matters of faith, and atrophy or deliberate denial of sacraments, rejection of authority, enmity, hatred, accusations, lack of trust, and disruption of fellowship. However, schism does not create new churches, or new "branches" of the One Church. It merely creates communities, variously separated from one another, which have no independent standing as separate churches, for there is but one Church.

8. Separation brings woundedness. Failure of charity, enmity, even mutual hatred, and breach of communion are among the wounds that these communities share, and these wounds are inflicted upon the whole Church, not merely on communities that have their origins in schism. In particular, schism and its consequent woundedness are qualities shared by all parties, not simply by one side of a dispute or separation.

9. Schism also denies the parties to it access to the varying gifts that God in His wisdom imparts to separate communities and to illuminated individuals within them. For example, most Protestant communities are denied the grace of the Apostolic Ministry of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. By the same token (for example), Roman Catholics are denied full benefit of the authentic insights of the Reformation.

10. Thus all members of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church share in the woundedness of the whole. Even if proper obedience e to Pap al authority is a gift of God to the whole Church (as many Anglicans believe), those in obedience to the Pope also suffer deprivation, because they do not have full access to the gifts of other, unfortunately also separated, Christian communities, with which, and among which, communion has been sundered. The Pope himself is diminished because he does not have full access to the gifts possessed by, for example, the Lutherans or the Eastern Orthodox. Likewise, Anglicans, Orthodox, and Protestants are all variously but similarly diminished.

11. Therefore, although all validly baptized persons are members of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, not one of us belongs to a community that does not share in the woundedness of the whole. The degree of this deprivation may differ among communities, but the woundedness and its consequent deprivations are qualities shared by the whole.

Nevertheless, in a great Mystery, wherever the Bishop is, surrounded by his clergy and his lay people, in the local Eucharistic community, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is mystically and supernaturally present4.

12. Approaches to Christian unity must therefore begin, as Nicolas Zernov taught us fifty-five years ago5 , with mutual, corporate, public repentance, and continue with honest and mutually respectful dialog. Among the questions that need to be answered is this one: To what extent are the various existing barriers to intercommunion essential matters of faith and practice?

While unity of faith is a prerequisite to sharing in the sacraments, I believe that there may be space for more latitude regarding some issues than is commonly realized. Thus we need to ask, and debate seriously, charitably, and with mutual respect: What beyond acceptance of the Scriptures with the Tradition of the Church, the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, the Sacraments, and the Apostolic Ministry must be agreed upon before intercommunion can be established.6

We all are wounded. Jesus Christ Himself is wounded. I join my tears with His.

---Stevens Heckscher, Obl. OSB, Ph.D. is Lay Associate for Spiritual Direction, chorister, and acolyte at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont, PA. He studied Mathematics at Harvard, Leiden, and Cambridge (UK), and Christian spirituality at the Shalem Institute, Washington, DC. He taught mathematics for twenty years at Swarthmore College, and although officially retired from scientific work, still actively pursues research in mathematical community ecology as a consultant. He is the author of a number of theological and scientific papers. Feast of St. Benedict, 2007

FOOTNOTES:

1. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, July 10, 2007. Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church. Available online at See also, Dominus Iesus, The Vatican, September 5, 2000; available online at: http://tinyurl.com/2pzqa9
http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=3022

2. In this we agree with Dominus Iesus, op. cit., IV.

3. Compare Dominus Iesus, loc. cit. See also the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, available online at http://anglicansonline.org/basics/Chicago_Lambeth.html

4. Cf. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrneans, 8.2. Throughout his letters, Ignatius argues that, where there is no bishop, there is no Church. That is why, while stressing that baptism always initiates the recipient into the One Church, I refer to all Christian confessions, in some of which the Apostolic Ministry is lacking, as "communities". Whether or not this Ministry is present, I am arguing, no one community, separated by schism from others, contains, or circumscribes, the One Church. Yet by a Holy Mystery the One Church is mystically or supernaturally wholly present in any Eucharistic community presided over by the Bishop. Part of the woundedness, or deprivation, since the time of the Great Schism in the eleventh century, lies! in the fact that the Bishop is out of communio in sacris with! many ot her Bishops. Ignatius could not have foreseen this eventuality.

5 N. Zernov, The Reintegration of the Church, SCM Press, 1952; p. 44: "The healing of schisms must begin with severe self-examination; only when the members of each confession accept their guilt in the disruption of Christian fellowship will the reintegration of the Church become a practical task instead of remaining an unattainable ideal."

6. This is an expansion of the essentials for restoration of uni! ty set forth by the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, op. cit.