One in Christ Contents Volume 42 Number 1
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ONE IN CHRIST CONTENTS VOLUME 43 NUMBER 1 ARTICLES Dom Bede Winslow 1888-1959. Sr Benedict Gaughan OSB. 2 Bose: an Ecumenical Monastery. Br Guido Dotti. 10 ‘Life Precedes Law’: The Story So Far of the Chemin Neuf Community. Timothy Watson. 27 St Anselm of Canterbury: His Mission of Reconciliation. R.W. Southern. 52 A Response to R.W. Southern’s ‘St Anselm of Canterbury and His Mission of Reconciliation.’ Archbishop Rowan Williams. 56 Bishop Bell 1883-1958. Mary Tanner. 60 Mixed Marriages and Sharing in the Eucharist: Universal Catholic Norms and some particular Catholic Norms (part 1). Georges Ruyssen SJ. 75 On Becoming a Christian: Commentary on the Fifth Phase Report of the International Catholic/Pentecostal Dialogue Ralph Del Colle. 98 The Scope of Salvation. A Wesleyan reflection prompted by the Joint Declaration on Justification. Norman Young. 122 The Figure of Mary from Israel to the Church in the Orthodox Tradition. Dom Nicholas Egender OSB. 134 Re-establishing the Sacramentality of Creation: Understanding the So-called Gnosticism of Paul Florensky. Rev Dr B.J. Lawrence Cross. 151 ‘Nothing but God.’ Dom John Mayhead OSB. 161 REPORTS & EVENTS A sermon by the Archbishop of Canterbury to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the death of St Anselm, 1109-2009. 165 Anglicans in Rome 2009. Frederick Bliss SM. 169 Chemin Neuf’s Community Manifesto: Serving the Church and the Unity of Christians. 1986-2009. Laurent Fabre. 175 BOOK REVIEWS 181 1 ONE IN CHRIST VOL. 43 NO. 1 Editorial We are pleased to offer once again what we hope is an interesting mix of contributions of an academic, as well as of a more pastoral nature. The present issue focuses particularly on three anniversaries, beginning with that of Dom Bede Winslow, father of this journal. Of the same generation is Bishop George Bell. St Anselm goes back somewhat further: and we are very pleased to include two pieces on him by his present successor at Canterbury. The extraordinary gift of friendship which the three anniversary subjects each enjoyed epitomises Anselm’s advice: omnis utilis scientia pendet ex caritate…1 ‘All useful knowledge depends on love.’ It is also a particular joy to offer contributions by members of two ecumenical communities, Bose and Chemin Neuf, convincing witnesses to the work of the Spirit today. The International Catholic/Pentecostal Dialogue Report embodies various experiences of the same Spirit: and different again, yet at least as exuberant, is the flood of images surrounding the Figure of Mary in Orthodoxy, channelling the spiritual riches of Israel. 1 Letter 433. 2 DOM BEDE WINSLOW OSB 1888-1959 Sr Benedict Gaughan OSB This memoir by Sr Benedict of Minster Abbey, Ramsgate marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of a pre-Vatican Council ecumenical forerunner, characterised by the Tablet of 14 August 1959 as ‘a man of wide learning, great humility and universal kindliness.’ Dom Bede inspired the family of publications of which this journal is privileged to be a member. Keith F. G. Winslow was born in Putney on 27 May 1888. His family was Anglican and he was one of three brothers. His father refused to allow his sons to be taught Latin, a language which, even as a monk, Bede never really mastered, and it was said that his French was even more notable by its absence. After his father's death his mother moved the family to the Isle of Wight which Fr Bede always considered his country. He loved the place and had a special feeling for the great curves and openness of the landscape. It was while living on the island that he and his brother Cuthbert decided to become Roman Catholics, but they chose to be instructed by a priest of the London Oratory. This took place in 1910. Before becoming a Catholic Bede took a serious look at the Orthodox Church. Three years later he entered St Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate and was professed on 1 April 1915. In a letter to Fr Aelred Carlyle (former Anglican who founded Prinknash Abbey) dated March 1914, Bede says: 'I am so thankful and happy that God has at last let me be numbered among the sons of our Holy Father [St Benedict]. Please pray that I may correspond to the graces God has [given] and will give me.' Unlike most of his contemporaries, he was not sent to Rome for his studies owing to his lack of languages. (It is interesting to note here that he later had contacts with many people of various nationalities, and a close associate of Bede's once said that a sort of reverse gift of tongues would take place: people who thought they could not speak English began to speak his tongue.) Fr Bede studied at home and was ordained on 24 August 1922. It seems that right from the beginning he felt a vocation to pray for 3 ONE IN CHRIST VOL. 43 NO. 1 unity, primarily by his monastic life. As a young priest he considered doing this by becoming a Carthusian monk as perhaps the best way to pray and offer himself for the cause. He received permission to try his vocation. There he loved the solitude and private prayer, but came to the conclusion, after several months, as did his superiors, that this severe and solitary life was not, for him, the way to serve God best. Back at Ramsgate he became guestmaster in the monastery and also a highly successful and much loved RAF chaplain at Manston, cycling to and fro. He also taught for a time in the prep school and did parish and chaplaincy work in local convents and schools. He was in charge of the little parish in St Mildred's, Minster for three years in the early 1930s, before the return of the Benedictine nuns. He was responsible for the revival of the devotion to St Mildred whom he called 'the wonderworker' and for the annual pilgrimage to Minster in her honour. This still continues in a form Bede would surely be proud of: Mass in the Anglican church of St Mary the Virgin. He also negotiated the return of some of her relics from Holland. He had a deep and personal devotion to St Mildred and relied on her intercession. More significantly, in terms of the history of Minster Abbey, he made the link that brought the Community to its present home in 1937 from St Walburga's Abbey, Eichstatt in Bavaria. Dom Bede died suddenly during the night of 30 October 1959 while staying at St Joseph's College, Beulah Hill, London, where he was acting as a temporary chaplain. The late Fr Brochard Sewell writing in The Tablet described him as 'a very holy monk, of quite exceptional personal character... who did good by wearing his habit always and everywhere.' A former Abbot of Ramsgate, Adrian Taylor, discerned that the secret of Bede's success lay in his humility and in his quiet tenacity. Dom Cuthbert Smith OSB, one of his contemporaries, wrote of him: 'One of Fr Bede's most notable characteristics was his imperturbability. Nothing ever ruffled him. He was at all times and in all circumstances perfectly calm and tranquil.' He goes on: 'He was extremely undemonstrative, but his friends were very numerous and it is safe to say he never had an enemy... it was impossible to quarrel with him.' Fr Cuthbert continues: 'Fr Bede's untimely and unexpected death is indeed a grave loss to his own brethren as well as to a very wide circle of friends, and the removal from his Community of such a GAUGHAN Dom Bede Winslow 4 striking and lovable character will leave a gap which will be, not only difficult, but impossible to fill.’ Fr Bede received at least 170 people into the Church. Recently a lady who knew him when she was a young girl told me how he would come to their home and give instruction to her mother whom he later received into the Church. She well remembers Fr Bede who would come and talk at length about the love of God, Our Lady and St Mildred. Over forty years later this 'young girl' can speak of the utter humility, gentleness and holiness of this monk who helped her mother. 'I will never forget Dom Bede, in all these years I feel he has been with me.' Her mother took the name Mildred at baptism. Dom Bede the Ecumenist: a Summary of his Achievements He was a holy monk, a kind, humble and lovable person who never made an enemy, easy with young people, families and people with learning disabilities. He was, it seems, a great listener. And yet it was with surprise that his Abbot and Community learned of his desire to devote his life to the work of unity. He was not particularly gifted intellectually, and he had no language other than his own. Just before he died he wrote an 'Historical Statement' on the Eastern Churches Quarterly—all of two sides of an A4 sheet in his own scrawled handwriting, reflecting the humility of the man. It appears that it all began in 1924 when he visited Rome for the first time making contact ('contacts' was one of his favourite words) with 'things' and people oriental. Although he had a great sympathy for Anglicanism and Methodism, he had what has been described as a 'love affair' with Eastern Christianity. Everything to do with the East, the prayer, the liturgy, the monastic life and the theology fascinated him, yet it has been pointed out that he remained faithful and true to his own Latin Church, and was a very conservative Catholic thinker.