Fr. Matt Kennedy reports for Stand Firm in Faith:
Friday, July 25, 2008 • 4:32 am
Okay, I am here in the press room. The press gaggle is filing in. The flat screen video displays are running a tape from yesterday's march.
Press Officer, Canon Paul Feheley steps up to the podium:
The theme of today is the Bishop and Other churches. I've asked Mary Tanner to be with us. She is a part of the WCC and served on its Commission of Faith and Order and as the Moderator. I will ask Mary to come forward to speak about the day.
Mary: Thank you and good morning. I don't know how many of you have noticed walking around the campus the presence of bishops of other traditions. They are not here as observers but as participants. It is a visible statement of the fact that we are on a journey as pilgrims together. It is a visible sign of our unity with the Church around the world,
The ecumenical movement is complex. We have come a log way. There are more players at the table today than ever before. Today is a marvelous opportunity to reflect how far we have come but for the bishops who are charged with the unity of the church and to be leaders in mission--it is, for them to think about being with other churches, a marvelous opportunity. In the indaba groups they can talk about their contexts, who they are partnering with and to listen to other people's stories. A challenge for them is to be more intentional in shared mission
Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, "Apartheit is too strong for a divided church."
What are the challenges today that are too strong for a divided church?
There was a marvelous example on the video from yesterday when we saw all those faith leaders sharing the mission of the MDG's.
Now when the bishops share in the indabas about their own contexts, they have two documents to help them.
The first is "Called to be the One Church" it is short and it is a portrait of the broad kind of vision adopted by the WCC. It is where the WCC thinks the ecumenic movement is going. There is a statement about mutual accountability and a challenge to shared mission
The second document comes from the International Anglican and Roman Catholic International Commission on Unity and Mission. This is an agreed statement not from a group of theologians but from a group of bishops who have taken the baton from the theologians and said, we've had 30 years, now where are we? The remarkable thing is how much we share in common. but they are also honest about our differences.
They will ask since we have this much agreement what can we do together
...she summarizes the second part of the document...but I missed it.
It is an important document and an important example of how two churches can move into mission on the basis of a shared faith.
Q: Can we get copies of these documents?
A: I am sure they will be in the book shop.
Q: Is it on the web?
A: Yes, on the AC website and first document is on the WCC website.
Q: ?ow do the ecumenical partners participate in the conference?
A: There are different groups of ecumenical guests. There are bishops from churches "in communion"...they have participated fully from the beginning. They were part of the retreat. At the end of the retreat they were joined by bishop from churches not in full communion. They are now taking part in the bible studies, indabas and select sessions. Many are speaking. This is full participation. They are not just observers as in the past
Church Times: What will be consequences if there is an agreement on the covenant?
A: The partners are watching with great interest. Many are looking particularly at the covenant. Much of what is in the covenant is in many of the statements agreed to between ecumenical partners. The covenant process will go on and they will continue to watch us. I think we have come so far in the ecumenical movement that our partners will understand that here is no such thing as a unilateral action. What one church does effects the others.
Q:What is your impression the Anglican bishops themselves? How many are concerned about the ecumenical consequences of their decisions here?
A: I cannot answer that numerically but the feeling is that the bishops gathered here are aware of ecumenical consequences of actions they may take
I want to underscore that there is no such thing as a unilateral action. One theme I hope that is being discussing in the indabas is the meaning of interdependence. I've heard one of our ecumenical partners say that we have the same issues and we must discuss them together
Q it would seem that it wold be easy to work ecumenically and interfaith with regard to the MDG's
A: yes, that is why yesterday's visible sigh was so important. Of course we do cooperate through the work o the WCC. Our project on the Decade to Overcome Violence is an example of that.
Q: Its very easy for the AC to have relationsihps with denominations but what about independent churches. How do we connect with those churches and why are they growing?
A: It is always a puzzle to know how to relate to new fast growing churches. The challenge is a local and international one. My feeling is that we are more aware of who is not at the table. I think if you look at local councils in this country they are very aware of this. That is true of our national ecumenical organizations like Churches Together in England. At the international level there is a new movement that is coming that has had its first gathering called the Christian Forum, embracing many movements that are not in the WCC. It is without the agenda that is the classic ecumenical agenda....visible unity. Not easy because of the lack of structure.
Canon Paul: The conference at 1:30pm, the ABC will be with us, but we have also invited one of the ecumenical guests.
A: One of the participants this conference is Archbishop Paul Sayah. He is a Maronite from the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church, the only eastern church that never separated from Rome. It's language is Syriac. Archbishop Paul is Archbishop of Haifa and the Holy Land. He is the Patriarchal vicar.
....
A couple of things we've been working on. We do have MacClaren's presentation on DVD. You can request from the media office
There are a number of new photos on the website. And a flikr site linked from the Lambeth site with more photos has been established.
Tomorrow is the day of the Lambeth photos. At 11am spouses, 2pm bishops.
Conger: There are a number of bishops from TEC that do not have jurisdiction. They work at the national church office. What are the parameters for invited bishops. I've seen four or five who do not exercise episcopal office.
A: let me get back to you on that. George has mentioned that there are a number of bishops who work in office but are not bishops with jurisdiction but who work in the NY office. We'll get an answer to that question for you.
Q: 1. For today's 130 conference are we confined in our questions to the theme of the day or can we ask beyond that. 2. I notice that all the signs from yesterday were piled in a rubbish heap. Were they recycled?
A: I do not know for sure. I will take that question down. Certainly some groups are worried about the overall effect of the conference
In terms of your first question, I will ask AB Philip and ask him to say at the beginning of the conference whether the questions are limited
Q: Is there anyway of getting feedback as to whether the the bishops have decided anything?
a: my sense is that they are working on that but not at a point of finality yet. I will double check on that for you and see if I can get anything to you
One last point , a question had been raised earlier about access to bishops. We realized that we have a problem. The bishops move from bible study to indaba groups at the same time you are here. We'd like to use the media classroom to show the morning dvd at 9:40am and then we have the conference between 9:45 and 10:15; that will allow you access to the bishops during that time. Beginning tomorrow, 9:40 DVD 9:45 or the media briefing on the second floor.
thank you. We appreciate the work you are doing in telling the story of the conference.
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