Transcript AN ANGLICAN-METHODIST COVENANT

AN ANGLICAN-METHODIST
COVENANT
The Common Statement
• Charts issues concerning unity in
faith, ministry and oversight
•Proposes a new relationship between
the Methodist Church of Great
Britain and the Church of England
The formal conversations
• Seeking visible unity
by stages
• Building on existing
convergence and cooperation
• Mutually affirming
each other’s churches
• Seeking a stepping
stone to the next stage
• Releasing energy for
mission
• Using the language of
covenant
We share a common history
• We each have myths about the other
• We must challenge our own stereotypes
• To tell the common story of God at work in
both churches
“The Methodist Church in Great Britain believes it is
part of the Holy Catholic Church, called by God for
mission and service”
• A community of over
a million people
• In England 300,000
active members
• 6,000 local churches
• 600 circuits
• 33 districts
• Ministry of Circuit
Superintendents and
District Chairs
• 2,000 active ministers
• 100 deacons
• 10,000 local preachers
• The World Methodist
Council
The Church of England:
• Two provinces each
with their archbishop
• 44 dioceses each with
their bishops and
cathedrals
• a million Sunday
worshippers
• 1,200,000 on Church
Electoral rolls
• 16,000 parish
churches
• 9,000 stipendiary
clergy
• 10,000 Readers
• The Anglican
Communion
“Our aim is NOT…
to put the clock back
to gloss over differences and
to construct a monochrome unity.
It IS
to harvest our diversity
to share our treasures and
to remedy our shortcomings,
so that we may enjoy together
what we believe God has given our churches
and still holds in store for us.”
The formal conversations
• Were given a specific,
deliverable mandate
• 11 Church of England
participants
• 12 Methodist Church
participants
• Five observerparticipants from four
other churches
• Drew upon the work
of Releasing Energy
• Went in parallel with
the tri-lateral informal
conversations with the
United Reformed
Church
We share in God’s mission
• God’s purpose is to draw redeemed
humanity and the created order together into
communion through Christ
• The Church contradicts its own nature and
calling when its members are unable to live
together in a reconciled fellowship
• Anglicans and Methodists share a
conviction that unity and mission belong
together
Our growth towards full, visible unity is based in:
• Scripture and the
• But there are two areas
Creeds
of doctrinal difference:
• Church of England
• The question of
formularies and other
freewill or election
doctrinal statements
• The doctrine of
• Methodist doctrinal
Christian perfection
standards
• Reason and experience
• A common expression
of faith
Sharing one baptism and one eucharist…
a vital dimension of full, visible unity
• We already recognise
each other’s baptisms
• We already welcome
each other’s
communicants to the
Eucharist.
• We share ecumenical
convergence and
common practice in
baptism
• We basically agree
about confirmation but
express it differently
• We agree that baptism
is fundamental to
membership
• We have similar
liturgies of the
Eucharist but some
differences of practice
A common ministry of word and sacrament
• All ministry is rooted in baptism
• All ministry is the ministry of Christ
himself
• The diaconate: differences of understanding
and practice
• The presbyterate: pastoral, preaching,
teaching and sacramental ministry
“A priest in the Church of England is a person called
and ordained to the same ministry of word and
sacrament as is exercised by ministers in Methodism.
We believe that there is a common understanding of
the presbyterate and that this provides a sound
foundation for the eventual interchangeability of
presbyteral ministries.”
Convergence and unresolved issues
• There is theological
convergence on so
many essential things.
Faith and vision are
what are chiefly
needed now.
• There are unresolved
issues about:
• the ministry of women
at every level; and
• presidency at the
Eucharist for those not
ordained to the
presbyterate
A common ministry of oversight
• A united pastoral oversight
• Leading the Church in mission
• Different patterns of oversight in our two
churches
• “Personal episcope in both churches is
exercised in a collegial and communal
context”
We make this Covenant
• From all we have in • With penitence for
common
our past divisions
• Making
• With thanksgiving
affirmations
and joy for our
convergence in
• Making
faith and
commitments
collaboration in
mission
We affirm one another’s churches as
• Belonging to the One,
Holy, Catholic and
Apostolic Church
• Authentically preaching
the Word of God
• Duly administering the
sacraments of Baptism
and the Eucharist
• Confessing the historic
creeds
• Having ordained and lay
ministries which are
instruments of God’s
grace
• Having ministries from
Christ and the Holy Spirit
• Embodying the conciliar,
connexional nature of the
Church and exercising
episcope in various forms
• Sharing a basis for
agreement about
episcopal oversight
We commit ourselves to
• Overcoming
remaining obstacles to
unity
• Realising our common
life and mission
• Continuing to
welcome each other to
our churches
• Encouraging
eucharistic sharing
• Listening and taking
account of each
other’s concerns
• Developing further
structures on the way
to a fully united
ministry of oversight
The report makes recommendations to:
• The General Synod of the Church of
England
• The Methodist Conference
The recommendations are:
• Study and response in our two churches
• Study and comment by our fellow
Methodists and Anglicans in these islands
and by our partner churches, especially the
URC, and in the ecumenical instruments
• A small joint group to monitor these
developments
And after the study and responses...
• Recommendation that the governing bodies
of the Churches enter into the Covenant on
the basis of the Common Statement
• Working out the commitments through a
Joint Implementation Commission
• Priority to the question of the
interchangeability of ministries
“The heart of ecumenism is renewal… we need to
dwell far less upon our ecclesiastical structures and
far more upon what we can do together as Christians,
learning from one another across the denominational
borders, in the deepening of spirituality, in the
exploring of theological depth, in evangelism together
and in together saying something and doing
something towards the secular community beyond the
Church’s frontier.”
Archbishop Michael Ramsey
to the General Synod 1972