ONE IN CHRIST CONTENTS VOL. 50 (2016) NO. 1 ARTICLES ‘Though many, we are one bread, one body; for we all partake of the one Bread and one Chalice.’ Who are you kidding? Patricia Rumsey osc 2 Intercommunion: A Church of England Perspective. Bridget Nichols 7 Fictive Families—Real Churches: commensality and pneumatology. Thomas O’Loughlin 22 Intercommunion: the Pope and Canon Law. James M. Cassidy CRIC 38 A reflection on Catholic concerns regarding eucharistic intercommunion among Christians. John Ball MHM 45 Personal Reflections on the Synods of Bishops on the Family. Thomas Knieps-Port le Roi 48 Amoris Laetitia: Comments from an Interchurch Family Perspective. Ruth Reardon 66 Reflections on the Joint Declaration of Francis and Kirill at Havana 2016. Markus Schmidt SJ 87 Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako and ecumenical engagements between the Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church. Kristian Girling 100 The Monastery as a Place of Invention for the World. Olivier Abel 122 Sisters Under the Skin: Surprising Connections between the Catholic Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Wesleyan Doctrine of Christian Perfection. Richard Clutterbuck 133 ADDRESS Sermon at St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, 19 January 2016. + Bernard Longley 151 REPORTS Protestantism and the monastic life: towards a renewed encounter. Sr Evangéline Vié 155 A Contribution from the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue of Canada to the Anglican Church of Canada’s Commission on the Marriage Canon. 158 Sharing the Faith at the Boundaries of Unity: Further Conversations between Anglicans and Baptists. David Carter 159 BOOK REVIEW 164 ONE IN CHRIST VOL.50 NO.1 1 EDITORIAL Our first five contributions spring from a discussion that took place in January of this year. Its convener, Thomas O’Loughlin, writes as follows: In November 2015, Pope Francis, while visiting Rome’s Lutheran Church was asked by Anke de Bernardis, a Lutheran married to a Catholic, about intercommunion. The pope replied, somewhat surprisingly, that the question was one for investigation by theologians. However, for nearly twenty years, since the publication of One Bread One Body (1998), this has been a topic that most Catholic theologians—at least in the English- speaking world—have avoided as if that document was somehow definitive. Since the question has never ceased to be an existential question among the baptized, the pope’s statement can be taken as a call that it should be re-examined and debated anew. With this end of a fresh discussion in view, I gathered, at very short notice, a group of speakers on 27 January 2016 to look at intercommunion between the Catholic and the Reformed Churches from a series of viewpoints. The papers from that day appear below, they make no claim to completeness, but they may draw attention to the more extensive investigation that Pope Francis wishes to provoke. We contributors hope they are a curtain raiser to a new ecumenical adventure so that we all, as sharers in one baptism, might share in one loaf and one cup.1 Francis’ response to Anke de Bernadis is reproduced in full as an appendix to Ruth Reardon's interchurch family reflection on Amoris laetitia: for the scandal of dis-communion affects any interchurch family, be it matrimonial or e.g. Franciscan, as Patricia Rumsey powerfully illustrates. This page's header indicates the 50th year of publication of One in Christ. A celebratory conference entitled ‘Parables of Communion: Journeying Together’ is to be held at Rostrevor Monastery in October. This follows a Day of Reflection on ‘What does Unity mean in a world that’s falling apart?’ that took place in June at Turvey Monastery. Presentations from both events will feature in our next issue. 1 Gabriel Daly's paper, ‘How can this Man give us his Flesh to eat?’ published in One in Christ, 47/2 (2013): 181-92, would also contribute to this discussion. (Ed.) 2 ONE IN CHRIST VOL.50 NO.1 ‘THOUGH MANY, WE ARE ONE BREAD, ONE BODY; FOR WE ALL PARTAKE OF THE ONE BREAD AND ONE CHALICE.’ WHO ARE YOU KIDDING? * Patricia Rumsey OSC Inter-church families know only too well the difficulties that arise in relation to the Eucharist. However, the followers of a particular way of Christian holiness, in this case various groups, some Anglican and some Catholic, of the Franciscan family, can experience this problem in particularly painful ways. This paper describes one such experience of the Eucharist causing pain within a family, explores that pain, and draws some theological points from reflection on the experience. What follows is intended neither as a canonical examination of the problem from one church’s point of view nor an examination of some aspect of the theology of the Eucharist; rather it is a meditation on where we are as Christians in regard to the ambiguity that ‘the sacrament of unity’ is often the greatest source of disunity in the life and practice of Christians. The locus typicus for interdenominational strife and dissension is Sunday morning in a household where one partner is Catholic and one belongs to another Christian denomination, and the teenage children don’t want to go to church anyway and are using their parents’ disagreements as an added reason for not going to either liturgy. ‘If you can’t agree which one of you is right and which church you are going to, it doesn’t say much for what it does for you …’ Light years away from the celebration of the Eucharist in an enclosed, monastic, contemplative community where I live, and where, you might think, all is sweetness and light and these kinds of issue never have cause to raise their ugly heads. Let me share with you our own experience in this liturgical, canonical, sacramental minefield. * Patricia Rumsey (Sr Francisca) is a member of the Poor Clare community in Arkley, north London. She lectures in Christian Liturgy at Sarum College. Her latest book is The Religious Experience of Monastic Women, and she is one of the editors of Anaphora. RUMSEY ‘We are one bread, one body...’ Who are you kidding? 3 Every year for the past eighteen years we have hosted the Franciscan formation course—a week long meeting set up originally for Poor Clare novices and those responsible for their formation. We also invited the Friars minor (‘the Franciscans’), and the Capuchin novices and it proved so successful that in a very short time the Anglican Franciscan Friars—the Society of St Francis—heard about it and were asking to participate. We were delighted at such a response and told them that they were most welcome. From then on the SSF were the most enthusiastic participants in the conference. We shared lectures, we shared study sessions, we shared group discussions and came to have the deepest respect for their integrity, we shared meals, we shared the washing up, we shared fun and laughter, we shared our life stories and frequently we shared tears as we listened to the faith journeys, especially those of our Anglican brothers, who seem so much more at ease with baring their souls than we are. We shared the Divine Office and felt privileged to have these brothers—and by this time, also Anglican sisters—with us in the Choir (and their singing is so much better than ours). We shared our Franciscan ideals, and came to see that these brothers and sisters of ours were true and shining examples of Franciscan living—taking their calling to follow Francis (1181/2-1226) just as seriously as we do, in fact, very often their sincerity and their generosity put us to shame. Just to give one example: when they enter the Order as postulants they are allowed to bring with them only what they can carry in a rucksack on their backs, while Poor Clare postulants have been known to turn up in a furniture van. Their desire to know more about St Clare (1193/4-1253) has always been humbling, and their contention that they find a living example of Clare when they come here among us causes us a great deal of embarrassment. Over the years we have formed very close and deep friendships with the friars and the sisters as we have watched them grow in their Franciscan calling from postulants to novices to junior professed and then take their place as fully professed life members of their communities and grow into positions of responsibility, leadership, and, frequently, to ordination. So we have shared so much, and yet … … … we cannot share the very thing that really should unite us: the Eucharist. In the earliest days of setting up this conference we approached Cardinal Basil Hume of saintly memory and asked if our Anglican brothers and sisters could share fully in the Eucharist with us as it was celebrated every morning 4 ONE IN CHRIST VOL.50 NO.1 in our chapel. At that time, the Anglican brother responsible for formation was not ordained, so they had no priest of their own and Cardinal Hume, with characteristic graciousness and sensitivity said of course they could, there was no problem. Even canonically, if they had no priest of their own, they could share sacramentally with us. Then came One Bread One Body (1998) and the rules were tightened up. Also, there had been a change in their circumstances and the brother for formation was now a priest, so they did have someone who could preside at the Eucharist. We would still have been more than happy for them to continue sharing our eucharistic celebration, but now it seemed that was no longer appropriate; by this time, we had as the spiritual advisor to our Federation a good friar who has always been a very close friend to our own community and has helped us through some very difficult times, but his interpretation of One Bread One Body was that the Anglicans could no longer receive Communion at our Catholic celebration of the Eucharist.