THE P RTAL
December 2014
Page 5
The future of ARCIC
and the Ordinariates
A personal view by Fr John Hunwicke
When I
was a schoolboy, relationships between the Catholic Church and the Church of England
consisted of exchanges of heavy artillery from behind prepared positions. But a thaw began when
Pope St John XXIII and Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher met in Rome. Apparently, the Pope had already met
Anglo-Catholic clergy and had heard about the restoration of the Shrine at Walsingham and so he warmly
congratulated Fisher for this marvellous step forward!
What Fisher, who had made a great reputation for
himself by persecuting Anglo-Catholic worship in the
diocese of London, made of these congratulations, is
not recorded! But matters really got under way after
the Roman visit of Archbishop Michael Ramsey to
Blessed Paul VI; and when the Anglican Roman
Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) began
its work in 1967/8, the intention was to work towards
“the restoration of complete communion in faith
and sacramental life”. The aim was to clear away the
obstacles; the assumption was that neither side would
do anything as wickedly negative as creating new
obstacles!
no further study required
We know what happened. ARCIC came up with
some very good reports, which Rome, in 1994, called
“a remarkable consensus ... no further study would
seem to be required at this stage”. But, simultaneously,
the movement for ordaining women had grown
unstoppable.
Many readers will recall the cheerful assurances
so easily given, that this would not hinder the
movement towards unity. Indeed, so Grand People
constantly assured us, the-next-pope-but-one would
undoubtedly introduce women’s Ordination into the
Catholic Church herself!
Eventually, Cardinal Walter Kasper, one of the most
liberal of the Pope’s colleagues, came to explain to the
bishops of the Church of England that, if they persisted
in making women bishops, the old ARCIC process of
working towards Full Communion sooner rather than
later, would be over.
flourishing, fulfilment of ARCIC ... and of the hopes of
Michael Ramsey ... and even those of dear old Geoffrey
Fisher!
Anglicanism has changed
But how different should the official dialogue now
be? It won’t be about clinching a deal on Unity; the C
of E put paid to that old dream. But there are things
that Christians living together in one little island can
profitably collaborate about. And notice that I said
“one little island”. Because Anglicanism has changed.
Apparently, the Archbishop of Canterbury is having
trouble getting all the Anglican bishops to sit together
under one roof at the Lambeth Conference! So I have
two tiny suggestions to offer.
(1) Abandon world-wide ARCIC with its
trips to Malta and Venice. Instead, let’s have an
upgraded ecumenical process in Britain. But let
it include other Christians as well: the vibrant,
growing Pentecostalist churches! The oldstyle Non-Conformists! The vibrant, growing
Orthodox communities! We could all share
much mutual enrichment. And it would save a
lot of money.
(2) This brings me onto my second proposal. It
concerns the money which the Catholic Church
would save by abolishing world-wide ARCIC.
Since our Ordinariates are the real fruit of the
ARCIC process as it was when everybody was
collaborating in good faith to achieve real unity,
the appropriate thing to do would be to transfer
that money to the Ordinariates. The Holy Father
Pope Francis has made clear his dislike of
“airport bishops”. So:
The Church of England would have shown herself to
be unmistakeably Protestant. Dialogue would continue
Save all those useless air fares to distant sunny
but would be radically different. But ...hey presto! destinations, and give the money to Mgr Newton and
Good can come out of evil! We got our Ordinariates his fellow Ordinaries!
out of all this! The Ordinariates are the actual, living,
[Snapdragon returns in the New Year]
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