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Interchangeability of Ministries Between Methodists and Anglicans in Ireland: a Wider Perspective

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Interchangeability of Ministries Between Methodists and Anglicans in Ireland: a Wider Perspective ONE IN CHRIST CONTENTS VOLUME 48 (2014) NUMBER 2 ARTICLES Interchangeability of Ministries between Methodists and Anglicans in Ireland: A wider perspective. + Harold Miller 165 The Covenant between the Church of Ireland and Methodist Church in Ireland. Gillian Kingston 179 Progress towards Anglican-Methodist Unity. David Carter 194 Anglican Patrimony and its Ecumenical Contribution. Charles Sherlock 215 Acting Together for Economic Justice. Angus Ritchie & Muhammad Abdul Bari 224 Rowan Williams and the Possibility of Dialogue. Part 1. Philip Ind 232 Learning How to Love: the relevance of St Maximus’s under- standing of virtue for the ethics of war. Aristotle Papanikolaou 253 REPORTS, ADDRESSES & DOCUMENTS Visit of Pope Francis to the Phanar, November 2014: joint declaration and addresses. 266 Patriarch Athenagoras and the Dialogue of Love. + Metropolitan Athenagoras 275 Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh Foundation Centenary Conference. Irina von Schlippe 284 Metropolitan Anthony: Christ as God and Man. Rowan Williams 286 Metropolitan Anthony: Encountering God in the Living Man. Adalberto Mainardi 298 Saint Irenaeus Joint Orthodox-Catholic Working Group. 309 Catholic-Orthodox Pastoral Consultation in England. 313 A letter to the 2014 Extraordinary Synod on the Family from Interchurch Families. 315 BOOK REVIEWS 320 164 ONE IN CHRIST VOL.48. NO. 2 EDITORIAL Our first three articles, (+Miller, Kingston, Carter) detail the genesis, scope and wider significance of the interchangeability of ministries established between Methodists and Anglicans in Ireland. The subject resonates with other ecumenical circumstances: for instance, fears of absorption, whether of Methodists by Anglicans, or Orthodox by Romans, must be exorcised. We must seek, in the words of Pope Francis, ‘the restoration of full communion, which does not signify the submission of one to another’ (Visit of Pope Francis to the Phanar). Interchangeability was achieved in spite of certain structural anomalies, which are deemed ‘bearable’ (at least pro tem), because preferable to the principal anomaly of disunity. Our final item (Interchurch Families’ letter to the Synod) requests that eucharistic sharing by interchurch spouses become the norm rather than the exception: so could it not be argued that, while such an arrangement might be anomalous from some points of view, the anomaly is bearable (at least pro tem), and vastly preferable to the greater anomaly of prohibiting such sharing? Metropolitan Athenagoras of Belgium reflects on his Patriarchal namesake’s life trajectory, which led to his meetings with Pope Paul VI, the lifting of the anathemas, and paved the way for Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew’s further steps. Joint action by Muslims and Christians for economic justice, in the face of ‘globalized indifference’ (Pope Francis), is similarly advocated by Ritchie & Bari: for such action is integral to both Islamic and Christian theologies. The vitality and particular contribution of Orthodox theology and spirituality (in so far as they are distinct) appears in the principle, which Papanikolaou discerns in St Maximus, that the criterion for ethical behaviour is promotion of growth in love—of God, and of our fellows. They are also richly demonstrated by our report, and two presentations from the Conference marking the centenary of the birth of Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, entitled with his words: ‘The Glory of God is a Man Fully Alive’ (von Schlippe, Wlliams, Mainardi). Russian Orthodoxy also figures among the major influences on the development of the theology of Rowan Williams, traced by Ind. 165 INTERCHANGEABILITY OF MINISTRIES BETWEEN METHODISTS AND ANGLICANS IN IRELAND: A WIDER PERSPECTIVE + HarolD Miller* This article looks at the issue of interchangeability of ministries, specifically between the Methodist Church in Ireland and the Church of Ireland. It examines the specific meaning of the term, some of the theological impetus for unity in the churches, including their many commonalities in doctrine, and the method employed in finding consensus. It looks at the issue, not just from an Irish angle, but through the worldwide ‘lens’ of experience with the Anglican-Methodist International Commission on Unity in Mission. It goes on to examine how, through the concepts of ‘bearable anomaly’, ‘transitivity’ and ‘significant consonance’, this has now become a reality in Ireland. At the time of writing, here in Ireland, we are in the midst of a significant development in the relationship between the Methodist Church in Ireland and the Church of Ireland (which is part of the Anglican Communion). This development cannot be underestimated after what has been something of an ecumenical winter. It is, as the title suggests, the interchangeability of ministries. Following on from the Chicago Lambeth Quadrilateral, Anglicans, and indeed, numerous ecumenical dialogues, have looked for four key components of unity, which could be summarized as follows: • a common confession of the apostolic faith • a common baptism and a single eucharist * Harold Miller has been Church of Ireland Bishop of Down & Dromore, in Northern Ireland, since 1997. He has had a lifelong friendship with Methodism, since his baptism as an infant in Jennymount Methodist Church. He served as co-chair of the Joint Theological Working Group in Ireland from 1998-2002, co-chair of the Covenant Council from 2002-2008, and co-chair of AMICUM (the Anglican-Methodist International Commission for Unity in Mission) from 2008-2014. 166 ONE IN CHRIST VOL.48. NO. 2 • a common interchangeable ministry of word and sacrament • a common ministry of oversight. Where these elements are found, we have the essential components of full visible unity. For many years, a difficult search has gone on for a way forward to find what one ecumenical theologian has called ‘the holy grail’ of interchangeability. In the Irish context, this particular goal was so clear in the minds of those who formulated the text of the 2002 Methodist/Church of Ireland Covenant (which was followed a year later by the covenant between the Church of England and the Methodist Church in Great Britain), that it was specifically mentioned as a goal for our future life together. So, the Covenant stated: We acknowledge each other’s ordained ministries as given by God and as instruments of his grace by which our churches are served and built up. As pilgrims together, we look forward to the time when our ministries can be fully interchangeable, and our churches visibly united. The meaning of interchangeability It is very important at this point to clarify the meaning of the word ‘interchangeability’. Although a vital word, it is also a limited word. It does not mean that we are speaking about the validity of a particular ministry. Since the 1970s the Church of Ireland had been clear that it was not questioning the validity of Methodist orders or ministry. In 1974, in fact, the Presbyterian General Assembly, the Methodist Conference and the Church of Ireland passed the following resolution: We recognize the ordained ministries of our three churches as real and efficacious ministries of the word and sacraments through which God’s love is proclaimed, his grace mediated and his fatherly care exercised. Nor are we speaking of creating one monolithic institutional church model which subsumes either or both of the churches concerned. Validity and subsumation have, if I may speak on behalf of Irish Methodists, been two of their great concerns. Even with all the ecumenical dialogues which have gone on for so many years, and with the recognition that apostolic succession is essentially a succession of the apostolic message, things have been said from time to time which may have made faithful Methodist people and ministers feel that the very validity of their ministry has been questioned. And, when you have one church which is very much smaller than the other (and that + MILLER Methodist & Anglican Interchangeability of Ministries 167 can work either way round in various parts of the world), subsumation and loss of specific identity can be a threat. Interchangeability is something quite different, and has been cleanly and clearly defined by the Joint Implementation Commission of the Anglican-Methodist Covenant between the Methodist Church of Great Britain and the Church of England, as follows. Interchangeability is: a situation in relations between churches whereby the ordained ministers of one church are eligible to be appointed to ministerial offices in the other without undergoing re-ordination. The ministerial orders or ordinations of each of the churches concerned are mutually recognized as meeting all the requirements of the other for its own ministry. My personal reflection on the question of interchangeability is influenced by my experience of being involved in the lead-up to the Covenant in Ireland, and also chair of the first Covenant Council after 2002. It is also influenced by my involvement with the Anglican- Methodist International Commission, which had a five year life from 2009-2014, and it is to that body that I would now like to turn, before coming back to the specific development in Ireland. AMICUM The Anglican Methodist International Commission for Unity in Mission was only the second such international commission in the history of the two churches to focus on the separation of more than 200 years. That in itself is an interesting fact, because the Anglican Communion and the Methodist World Council were and are both involved in many and interesting bilateral dialogues with other ecumenical partners. Yet the relationship between Methodism and Anglicanism is one of the closest historically. Methodists and Anglicans have so many things in common. There is a shared history both before and after the Reformation; the Methodist leadership not least of John and Charles Wesley was thoroughly steeped in the Church of England; there are strong shared elements of liturgy—rooted in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and a shared hymnody emerging from and also in addition to the Methodist revival of the eighteenth century.
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