To the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity I

To The Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity I. Prefatory Comments A. Gratitude for the invitation to discussion At the outset of its response to Petrine Ministry: A Working Paper, the Commission on Faith and Order of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA acknowledges with gratitude the graciousness and the significance of Pope John Paul II’s offering an open invitation based "on the already existing, though still imperfect communion between all Christian communities" . "to discover and to realize together the will of Christ for his Church" (1.4). The Faith and Order Commission has worked hard to foster the degree of communion that currently exists among Christian communities in the USA; thus we recognize the invitation as addressed to us, and count it a privilege to respond to the invitation. The Commission shares the concern for the unity of the Church, and for the charism of primacy to be exercised as a ministry of unity and a service of love (1.2). Further, the Commission notes with gratitude the mandate for all to "discover and to realize together the will of Christ for his Church"(1.4). We engage in the process of dialogue in a spirit of deep humility before Christ and in a spirit of willing openness to his will for the whole people of God, recognizing that a fuller exercise of primacy may call for revision or adjustment (1.3) not only in the exercise of papal primacy, but also in the manner in which Christian communities respond to and/or receive the exercise of a Petrine ministry. B. The desire to make common cause with the PCPCU This response is offered to the Pontifical Council by the whole Commission on Faith and Order in hopes that its work may further the cause of Christian unity. Where points of tension may surface between what Petrine Ministry says and the Commission is able to say at this point, these tensions should be understood as those areas of concern that, when discussed with a desire for mutual understanding and a common desire to discern the will of Christ, may bear rich fruit for the life of the church. C. Recognition of the breadth of concern The Commission recognizes that issues concerning the nature of primacy and the exercise of the Petrine office have been a widely shared concern from the earliest days of the church, have played a significant role in defining the divisions between churches, and continue to be discussed in a broad spectrum of ecclesial communions today. Questions about primacy, therefore, are of concern to all the churches. We recognize the fact that when the Bishop of Rome speaks, he is understood not only by most Christians but also by the non-Christian world to be the major spokesperson for Christianity. In a world crowded by many voices, we celebrate that the Gospel of Jesus Christ thus receives a hearing. The Commission is pleased to respond in a manner that acknowledges that all churches may benefit from a common understanding of primacy and Petrine ministry, because such common understandings have the potential to enhance the Church’s proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. D. The Commission’s prior work on authority Prior to the invitation of the PCPCU, the Commission on Faith and Order had begun discussion of some of the issues posed in Petrine Ministry. In response to specific requests from its member communions, the Commission’s current quadrennium (2000-2003) has devoted two of its three Study Groups to the issue of authority. One Study Group is concerned with the question of how authority is exercised within the Church. Another Study Group has focused its efforts on considering how the Church may speak authoritatively in the pluralistic culture in which it finds itself. A third Study Group is assessing current progress toward full communion in the North American context. While the issue of authority is by no means coterminous with the issue of primacy or of the exercise of Petrine ministry, the Commission notes (concurring with Ut unum sint 94) that without power and authority the office of Petrine ministry would be "illusory." Hence, the studies underway by the Commission may well serve to respond to the invitation for fraternal dialogue (UUS 96). E. The process by which this response was formulated In June 2002, the Faith and Order Commission of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA received Petrine Ministry: A Working Paper from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. All members of the Commission have had opportunity to read that document, to consider it prayerfully, and to offer responses to it from their various confessional positions. Responses from commissioners were forwarded to the Study Group considering Authority in the Church, which coordinated those responses and offered a single paper to the Commission for its consideration at its March 2003 meeting in Washington, D.C. Therefore, this response to Petrine Ministry includes input from a very broad spectrum of confessional positions. F. Future response expected The Commission’s current quadrennium will conclude in October 2003. The publications of one of the working groups should have been completed by then and the other should be completed around 2005. The results of these studies will be made available to the PCPCU once they are in completed form. The Commission hopes that the fruits of its labors will serve to clarify those issues of authority and its exercise that continue to be sources of division, as well as those issues upon which the churches are in agreement. Such clarity, we believe, can serve to enhance the process of dialogue concerning the nature and exercise of a Petrine ministry. II. Statements of Convergence and Divergence In the meantime, the Commission is already at this stage able to offer to the PCPCU some statements of convergence and recognizable divergence among its members regarding the nature of authority. Following these statements of consensus and divergence, the Commission offers a number of suggestions of issues that may warrant further conversation as the discussions of primacy and the Petrine ministry continue. A. "Petrine Ministry" seems to assume a particular "shape" of primacy, i.e., primacy as a ministry to the universal church (cf. 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3, which speak of the ministry of the Bishop of Rome in terms of "all the churches", and the extensive discussion in 3.3 of the universal jurisdiction of Petrine Ministry). In the first instance, the Commission notes that not all communions recognize the category of "primacy", and that even within communions that recognize the term, "primacy" has acquired several different meanings. Further discussion of the Petrine Ministry would be well served by the development of a common language of primacy per se that could be shared by all communions. (See A. below) B. The Commission recognizes the foundational work performed by Biblical scholars in recent years, work that has surfaced the existence of a variety of understandings of the Church and its order within the New Testament itself. (WCC Faith and Order Paper 181, The Nature and Purpose of the Church, hereinafter NPC, 86) C. That said, the Commission affirms that, in conformity with what is common to that variety of understandings, all authority in the Church is received from Christ, the sole Head of the Church, and is mediated by the power of the Holy Spirit. D. Many communions believe that authority exercised within the Church is therefore a delegated authority, implying a distance and discontinuity between Christ and the Church. Others speak of Christ’s authority as transferred to the Church, implying an organic unity between Christ and the Church. Still others see the relationship between the authority of Christ and the Church not so much in terms of structure or office but as a function of truth and discernment - a process by which effective leadership facilitates the ongoing leadership of Christ. This is an area of divergence among the churches, and the PCPCU may encounter this divergence as dialogues concerning primacy continue. E. While there is convergence on point C above, there remains divergence among the churches regarding the manner in which the Holy Spirit acts within the Church as it responds to the mandate to speak the Word of Christ to the people of God. The issue of primacy, therefore, may bring to the surface significant pneumatological differences among the churches. F. The Commission concurs with Petrine Ministry (4.2) that many "ecclesiological fundamentals still need preliminary ecumenical study and discussion, viz., regarding the sacramental structure of the Church, episcopal ministry and apostolic succession." During the course of our discussions, for example, we encountered vigorous disagreement between, and in some cases within, communions regarding whether the Church itself is a sacrament. G. We have found, further, that as a consequence of their positions regarding the Church’s sacramentality, some assume that the Church itself (not merely individual members of the Church) is constantly in need of renewal and conversion; others will rule out such a notion prima facie. This difference not only reflects widely divergent assumptions regarding the nature of the Church; it also has profound implications on how the nature of authority is construed and put into practice. H. During the course of our discussions, the Commission has discovered that churches differ regarding the interpretation of Matthew 16:17-19; Luke 22:31-32; John 21:15-19; John 20: 21-23; Galatians 2; and Acts 15, viz., whether these texts establish a particular form of primacy (e.g., a "Petrine Office" distinct from a more functional role of "Petrine ministry" or "Petrine function," cf.

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