ONE IN CHRIST CONTENTS VOLUME 43 NUMBER 2 ARTICLES Kenosis and the Church. Catherine E. Clifford 2 Moments of Crisis and Grace: Jewish-Catholic Relations in 2009 David Neuhaus 6 John Calvin in an age of Ecumenism: a sketch. Alec Ryrie 25 Pride and Prejudice: the Vocation of the Eastern Catholic Churches. Robin Gibbons 35 The Primacy of Peter: an Eastern Perspective. Demetrios Charbak 54 The Petrine Ministry. Colin Battell 61 Mixed Marriages and Sharing in the Eucharist: Universal Catholic norms and some particular Catholic norms (part 2). Georges Ruyssen 75 Roman Catholic-Reformed Dialogue. David Carter 99 Edinburgh 1910 to 2010: Centenary Assessment and Mission Renewal. Kenneth R. Ross and Kirsteen Kim 113 Bilateral Dialogues between the Churches: Milestones on the Path of Unity. André Birmelé 136 DOCUMENTS Address by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Willebrands Centenary Symposium in Rome, 12 November 2009. 154 A Response to ‘Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ’. The Anglican Roman Catholic Dialogue of Canada 167 REPORTS & EVENTS Reflections on the Faith and Order Plenary, Crete, October 2009: Renewing the Marks: Called to be One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. Jamie Hawkey 183 Receptive Ecumenism and Faith and Order. Paul D. Murray 189 BOOK REVIEWS 195 1 ONE IN CHRIST VOL. 43 NO. 2 EDITORIAL ‘Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.’ Catherine Clifford’s opening essay on Philippians 2 is perhaps an appropriate cri de coeur for this edition of ONE IN CHRIST, as it must be for all ecumenical endeavour. There is a sense of pleading from various contributors for a way forward which respects the lived experience of their respective church communities, and is not just ‘more of the same from above’. This is perhaps crystallised in Archbishop Rowan Williams’ plea, echoed by others, for a ‘genuinely theological doctrine of the Church’ which enables us to discern ‘how the nature and character and even polity of the Church are grounded in and shaped by the nature of God and of God’s incarnation in history’ (p.155, below). Jamie Hawkey’s reassessment of the four marks of the Church as vocative statements illustrates this more properly theological approach. In the liturgy, we proclaim our belief in the Church as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, recognizing both what we already are, and what we hope to become. The whole project then becomes a prayer, becomes eucharist, which is surely right. 2 KENOSIS AND THE CHURCH: PUTTING ON THE MIND OF CHRIST Catherine E. Clifford* This essay was first presented as a meditation on Phil 2: 1-11 during the Second International Conference on Receptive Ecumenism and Ecumenical Learning, Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University, England, in January 11-15, 2009. The line of theological reflection presented here is developed more extensively by the author in ‘Kenosis and the Path to Communion,’ The Jurist 64/1 (2004): 21-34. ‘Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself’ (Phil 2: 5-6). Paul calls upon the church at Philippi to take on the mind and heart of Christ, to realize in its life the self-emptying and self-giving love of Christ. Note that Paul links this fundamental kenotic stance to the harmony and the unity of the church: ‘be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind’ (v. 2). What is the significance of his call for the church in the present context? We stand today at the threshold of a new moment in the ecumenical movement. For some time now many of our churches—confounded by both the unexpected discovery of consensus on many fundamental theological questions that were once considered church dividing, and on the other hand, by the emergence of new disagreements and challenges to church unity—seem to have stalled in a kind of fear of moving forward, of taking concrete new steps toward fuller communion. They ask, ‘Can we possibly change without sacrificing something that is essential, that defines us as who we are as Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, or Protestant Christians, without betraying a tradition that has been entrusted to us by the apostles— those first witnesses to the resurrection of Christ?’ Saint Paul invites us today, as he once invited the Christians of Philippi, to put on the mind of Christ. In an act of condescension, he tells us, the Divine Word emptied himself to embrace our humanity. * Dr Clifford is Associate Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and serves as a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue of Canada. 3 ONE IN CHRIST VOL. 43 NO. 2 When we read the gospels we discover that his kenotic love did not end there. The choice of self-emptying love was renewed again and again in the many decisions taken in the daily existence of Jesus. His whole life and mission is marked by this spirit of self-giving and self-sacrificing love. Jesus rejects the popular messianism of his time, refusing to seek after or abuse his authority as a power over others. Instead, he takes on the role of a ‘defenseless prophet’ in solidarity with the poor and vulnerable. Jesus is not the focus of his own preaching. Rather than affirming his own self-importance, he directs his listeners’ attention to the unfailing love of the Father. His self-emptying is made complete in his passion and death on the cross. This paschal mystery is a paradox at the heart of the Christian faith: the glory of God is revealed in the humility (and even the ignominy) of the Suffering Servant; it is in losing ourselves that we gain eternal life. Piet Schoonenberg once wrote of Christ’s total self-gift: ‘The more radical the self-emptying, the fuller the outpouring of love towards us, but also the more reckless the trust in the Father.’1 Is it not to this radical and reckless trust in God that our churches are being called in the present context? At base, the kenosis of Christ, and our share in the dynamic of his self-effacing love, is a profound act of faith. Making that act of faith, each time we do it, requires that we turn away from our complacency, self-sufficiency, and fear, and turn anew towards God in a genuine conversion of heart. Our participation in the self-giving love and communion of Christ leads to a fundamental re-ordering of our interior disposition. Saint Paul invites the Christian community not only as individuals, but also collectively, to such a reorientation of its deepest self. At the same time, his call is an invitation to consider how we might need to be set free from our attachment to a false sense of self. Reflecting on the great Christological hymn of the letter to the Philippians, theologians have seen in it a kind of double kenosis: first, the self-emptying of the Divine Word to embrace our humanity and second, the repeated choices of the earthly Jesus as he continually places his faith in the Father in a movement of return. Of course, the two are inseparable, and the dynamic is one and the same. This framework of double kenosis can be extended to the church. Indeed, the Second Vatican Council—in a frequently neglected section of the 1 Piet Schoonenberg, ‘The Kenosis or Self-Emptying of Christ,’ Concilium (1966/2): 27-36, at 36. CLIFFORD Kenosis and the Church 4 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium 8), which cites Phil 2:6-7—recognized that just as Christ emptied himself to become a servant, to become poor, the church, which carries on his mission in the world, ‘is not set up to seek earthly glory, but to spread humility and self-denial also through its own example’. In the context of our ecumenical commitment, we might ask how, in our day, our churches are being called to pour themselves out for one another? To what extent are they willing to put their gifts at the service of those with whom they are not yet in full communion? How willing are they to work with other churches in the service of humanity? Where Jesus was made perfect through obedience and reverent submission in a response of perfect love (Heb 5: 7-8), the obedience of the pilgrim people of God—somewhat less than perfect—will always imply a measure of repentance. For the church, this second movement of kenosis is a return to communion, a turning back to that participation in the self-giving love of Christ to which we are called through baptism. Our obedience is utterly dependent upon that of Christ who, being obedient even unto death, has made us righteous by his free gift. Our obedience begins when we open ourselves to receive that gift. At this second level, the path toward unity is a return to our original covenant with God, a deepening and renewal of the vocation of the church itself. In these days as we reflect together on the work of receptive ecumenism, it is worth considering what it is that we have to receive—not simply from the riches of one another’s traditions, but ultimately from God. For the basic identity and vocation of the church are established in the covenant love of Christ with the Father through the Spirit. How do we define our ecclesial selves? Of what, in our time, are our ecclesial selves called to be emptied? What needs to get out of the way so that we are truly open to receive God’s gift? What is the purification and renewal of which we have need (UR 4)? It has been suggested that some of what needs correcting is our very sense of self, our sense of identity, which has too often confounded confessional identity or self with the identity or self of the one church of Christ.1 Or, as one commentator has put it, we tend to see our selves as the center of the ecclesial universe, the sun around which the other 1 This observation is carefully developed by the Groupe des Dombes in For the Conversion of the Churches, trans.