Anglican Centre in Rome CENTRO News JANUARY 2021
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1 ANGLICAN CENTRE IN ROME CENTRO News JANUARY 2021 In This Issue A REFLECTION ON VADE MECUM BRINGING VOICES TOGETHER Week of Prayer for Christian Unity “The Anglican SEMINARIANS IN ROME Centre provides a permanent base HOSPitalitY & EncounterS for the Anglican Communion in WEBINAR ON NEWMAN Rome”. A bridge between two traditions Revd Dr Will Adam St THOMAS BECKET 800TH ANNIVERSARY www.anglicancentreinrome.org 2 REFLECTIONS The Director writes: s we put together this second issue of the Centro ACR News, I am reminding myself of the sanctifying, unifying and liberating presence of Christ as we navigate the waves of our turbulent world. The following pages and images exemplifyA it. The Anglican Centre, through the constant guidance of the Holy Spirit, lives its calling as it strives to reach out to others – even at a time when movement is restricted and we are unable to meet with each other. The contributions to the newsletter from people of different backgrounds inform us of a spiritual energy at work. We can see God’s power strengthening our commitment as fellow disciples of Christ to stand together, sharing the Good News. It is true that with a spirit of goodwill and kindness, as shown by Jesus himself, we can discover the other as a companion of Christ. We can learn a lot from this experience which can be without any doubt a challenging one. Thus, may we always abide in Christ so that the fruits we bear can bring hope to our turbulent world. From Lambeth Palace The Revd Dr Will Adam Archbishop of Canterbury’s Ecumenical Adviser, Director for Unity, Faith and Order in the Anglican Communion he Anglican Centre provides a permanent base for the Anglican Communion in Rome. Over more than 50 years the Centre and its successive directors have played a major role in the development of the relationship between Anglicans and Catholics around the world, establishing and maintaining contacts between these two Communions with global Tpresence. The Director of the Centre, as the ‘ambassador’ of Anglicanism to the Holy See, plays a crucial day to day role in this. Over the years the Centre has been a base for Anglicans visiting Rome and the location of an educational programme through its various courses. In this time of pandemic, where travel has become nigh on impossible, the Centre has adapted and, moving online, has seen its reach grow both in numbers and in geography. VADE MECUM THINKING on ECUMENISM What a new guide for bishops tell us f anyone thought that ecumenism their own dioceses, and a ‘crib sheet’ of was something Catholic bishops the ecumenical thinking of the Church, might focus on once a year during from the Second Vatican Council to Iunity week and then forget about, the present day. It leaves them in no a new document endorsed by Pope doubt as to how much of a priority Francis will put them straight. ecumenical mission is. Just before Christmas, The Bishop “The bishop cannot consider the and Christian Unity: An Ecumenical promotion of the ecumenical cause as Vade Mecum was published by the one more task in his varied ministry, Pontifical Council for the Promoting one that could and should be deferred of Christian Unity to remind Roman in view of other, apparently more Catholic bishops that ecumenical work important priorities,” it says. is not an option but an obligatory part And if any bishop or anyone else of episcopal ministry. still needed further evidence of how A Vade Mecum is effectively a seriously Rome takes ecumenism, way of describing a document as a the line-up at the presentation of the guidebook and this guide, given Pope document made it clear, with not one Francis’ blessing, provides bishops with but four of the Vatican’s most senior a series of practical recommendations officials: Cardinals Kurt Koch, president to improve ecumenical relations in of the Pontifical Council for Promoting 3 Christian Unity; Marc Ouellet, prefect “By weighing truths rather than of Communion, reconciliation and of the Congregation for Bishops; simply enumerating them, Catholics anointing can be open to other Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the gain a more accurate understanding of Christians who share a common Congregation for the Evangelization of the unity that exists among Christians,” baptism, although Vatican officials Peoples; and Leonardo Sandri, prefect the document says. have recently cautioned German of the Congregation for Eastern That unity is evident in many ways, bishops for inviting Lutherans married Churches. from a common baptism to common to Catholics to receive Communion. According to Cardinal Tagle, prayer and joint action to alleviate Catholics cannot share the divisions between Christians should suffering and promote justice. Eucharist with other Christians just not be taken into missionary lands, In recent times efforts to engage in to be “polite,” but there are pastoral for they deter people who might theological dialogue and a willingness situations in which individual bishops otherwise be looking for salvation. to recognize how God has worked may decide when “exceptional sacramental sharing is appropriate,” “The non-Christians are in another community and to learn the document says. scandalized, really scandalized, when from it – what is known as receptive we Christians claim to be followers of ecumenism – have also reflected When considering sharing the Christ and then they see how we are Christians’ desire to find ways to come sacraments, it says, bishops must keep fighting one another,” he said. together. Strong friendships have two principles in mind at all times, formed and the hostility and suspicion even when those principles create For those particularly committed to of the past now seem some way off. tension: a sacrament, especially the ecumenism in other denominations, But the document nevertheless urges Eucharist, is a “witness to the unity this new document is not just a Catholics “to lay aside the polemical of the church, ”and a sacrament is a welcome endorsement of the search language and prejudices of the past” “sharing of the means of grace”. for unity but also gives a sense of and points out that Roman Catholic Roman Catholic thinking on the issue. While the issue of shared canon law decrees that it is a bishop’s It points out that ecumenism is not Communion has caused personal responsibility to foster ecumenism. about looking for a truce – although distress to many people, and some people might argue that a truce For those, though, who long above seems to many to be a block to would once have been mightily helpful all else for the day when Anglicans further ecumenical progress, it is when divisions were so much more and Catholics might share Holy not perceived in this way in Rome, evident – because no compromise Communion together, there is no according to Cardinal Koch, speaking should be made at the expense of major breakthrough in the document. at the document’s press conference. truth. Catholic doctrine sets great Instead it says that this remains an The Catholic Church, he said, does store by a hierarchy of truths with the area of “significant tension”. It does not see the sharing of the sacraments mysteries of the Trinity and salvation point out, though, that the bishop can as “a step on the way,” as some Christian in Christ the source of all doctrine. decide when access to the sacraments communities do. However, he did offer 4 REFLECTIONS hope to those individuals who seek engage with other Christians, says significant liturgical celebrations, the Eucharist at a Catholic Mass in all the Vade Mecum: “The virtue of and participating in ecumenical good faith. charity demands that Catholics avoid organisations’ events. As you know, “For one person, a single person, polemical presentations of Christian the Anglican Centre has long striven there can be an opportunity for history and theology and, in particular, (in pre-lockdown times) to encourage sharing this grace in different cases” that they avoid misrepresenting the people to come together in its chapel he said, as long as the person meets positions of other Christians. Rather, for joint services and now continues the requirement of canon law, which formators informed by an attitude of to do so online. says a non-Catholic must request the charity will always seek to emphasise Finally, the document urges Eucharist of his or her own accord, the Christian faith that we share with practical ecumenism - “manifest Catholic faith” in the others and to present the theological sacrament and be “properly disposed.” Christians working together to alleviate suffering and to bear witness There is more encouragement in to Christ – ventures which the Centre the Vade Mecum for those in what are has long supported. sometimes called mixed marriages but the document calls “interchurch “The experience of bishops in marriages”. many parts of the world is that “Interchurch marriages should co-operation between Christian not be regarded as problems for communities in service of the poor they are often a privileged place is a driving force in promoting the where the unity of Christians is desire for Christian unity”, it says. built,” says the document. “As disciples of Christ, schooled “However, pastors cannot be by the Scriptures and Christian indifferent to the pain of Christian tradition, we are compelled to act division which is experienced in the to uphold the dignity of the human context of these families, perhaps person and the sacredness of creation, more sharply than in any other context. in the sure hope that God is bringing The pastoral care of interchurch the whole of creation into the fullness families, from the initial preparation of his Kingdom. of the couple for marriage to pastoral Our common service manifests accompaniment as the couple have differences that divide us with before the world, therefore, our children and the children themselves balance and accuracy.