The story of the Episcopal Church in the ecumenical movement has yet to be written. It may be said to begin in the 19th century when this Church’s commitment to visible unity was expressed in a statement adopted by the House of Bishops, later known as the Lambeth Quadrilateral after it was adopted by the 1888 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops in a slightly amended version. In the USA it is called the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral as a reminder that it was first adopted at Chicago in 1886. After its endorsement by the House of Bishops, the statement was circulated to many American denominations for their response. Though some churches in the USA expressed interest in a dialogue on the points of the Quadrilateral, the fourth point on the historic episcopate proved to be a barrier to unity with churches that had a different form of ordained ministry. The Quadrilateral has remained a minimal expression of the basis upon which the Episcopal Church enters into conversations with other churches, being reaffirmed frequently by General Conventions and printed in the Book of Common Prayer. The 1982 General Convention reasserted it as a statement of essential principles for our own unity and for unity with other Churches, together with an explication titled “Principles of Unity”.
The first great impetus toward visible unity came more than 20 years later at the first World Missionary Conference held in 1910. Here too, Episcopalians played a prominent role. Bishop Charles H. Brent, Missionary Bishop in the Philippines, made a passionate plea for unity in a world that was “too strong for a divided Church.” Bishop Brent also argued that churches needed not only better cooperation in the mission field, the reason for calling the Missionary Conference, but deeper understandings of one another. An Episcopal layman, Silas McBee, also played an important part. He presented a letter to an Italian cardinal and later, as a member of the continuation committee, journeyed through Europe meeting with kings and leaders of Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Churches in the company of John R. Mott.
The first formal proposal for a World Conference on Faith and Order was made by the 1910 General Convention on a motion by William T. Manning, then rector of Trinity Church, New York City. The Episcopal Church has participated in each subsequent World Conference on Faith and Order and World Conference on Life and Work. The 1937 General Convention endorsed the proposal for a World Council of Churches and was a founding member when the two series of world conferences came together in 1948. Later, the International Missionary Council and the World Council of Christian Education merged with the World Council of Churches.
In the United States, the Episcopal Church was slow in joining the Federal Council of Churches, but became a member in 1940, and has been a member of its successor, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, from its formation in 1950.
The World Council of Churches and various national councils have been means through which nearly all Provinces of the Anglican Communion join with all Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Old Catholic, and most Protestant Churches to bear common witness, express common concerns for service, explore their differences, and seek “visible unity in one faith and one eucharistic fellowship.” The theological work of Faith and Order in councils of churches has played an important role in harmonizing the initiatives of the churches for visible unity.
Initiatives of the Episcopal Church to draw closer to Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists in the first half of the twentieth century produced no direct results. Greater success accompanied efforts to establish concordats of full communion (then called intercommunion) on the basis of the Bonn Agreement with the European Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht (England, 1932; USA, 1940), and in 1946 and 1949 it was made clear that the relationship included the Polish National Catholic Church in the USA. (In 1978 the PNCC terminated sacramental communion with the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada because of their ordination of women to the priesthood).
Full communion was established in 1961 on the same basis with the Philippine Independent Church, a body comparable in size to the Episcopal Church in the USA. Full communion with the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar followed in 1976.
Early in the twentieth century another movement arose to form “united churches” in nations or regions. The Church of South India, perhaps the best known of these, was inaugurated in 1947 with the union of Anglican dioceses, the Methodist Church, and the United Church (itself made up of Presbyterian, Congregational, Dutch Reformed, and Basel Mission Churches). It is based on the Lambeth Quadrilateral and claims to preserve the congregational, presbyterian, and episcopal elements. At the end of an interim period of 30 years, after its presbyters were all episcopally ordained, the 1976 General Convention established full communion with the Church of South India at the 1976 General Convention. The 1973 General Convention had already established full communion with the Church of North India, the Church of Pakistan, and the Church of Bangladesh, unions of Anglican dioceses with several other churches which incorporated the historic ministry of bishops, presbyters and deacons from its inauguration.
In the 1961 General Convention joined the United Presbyterian Church in inviting the United Church of Christ and the Methodist Church to explore the possibility of visible unity, an initiative which came to be known as the Consultation on Church Union. While some of the participating churches have united (Evangelical United Brethren with the Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church with the United Presbyterian Church), for many years the Consultation explored “covenanting communion” as a form of visible unity. It has been the principal forum in the USA for dialogue between Anglicans and the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church USA, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and the International Council of Community Churches. In 2002 COCU became Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC) and focused by intensive study on reaching agreement on ordained ministry and in combating racism.
The second half of the twentieth century has been characterized by a more inclusive ecumenical movement, stimulated especially by the Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1964) and the extraordinary pace of change in the modern world. International dialogues were initiated by the Christian World Communions: Anglican - Roman Catholic (1966), Lutheran - Roman Catholic (1965), Anglican - Lutheran (1970), Anglican - Orthodox (1973), Orthodox - Roman Catholic (1980), Anglican - Reformed (1981) and Lutheran -Orthodox (1981), to mention only a few. This new network of relationships has led to growth in understanding and significant theological and doctrinal convergences and agreements. The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission was the first to submit a final report to the sponsoring churches for evaluation and judgment by the appropriate authorities.
Many international dialogues are paralleled by national dialogues. The Episcopal Church has been involved in the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Consultation, the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation, and the Lutheran-Episcopal Dialogue, all of which have produced important theological and pastoral results. The multiplication of national and international bilateral and multilateral dialogues and consultations raised the concern that the visible unity of the Church should not be dealt with piecemeal, but rather that each separate activity complement all the others. The 1967 General Convention spoke to this question in an important policy statement.
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What is the aim or goal of all these consultations, commissions, dialogues, and conferences? The 1961 New Delhi Statement, issued by the Assembly of the World Council of Churches and approved by the 1964 General Convention, was one influential effort to answer this question. The 1968 Assembly of the World Council supplemented New Delhi, pointing to the dynamically catholic dimension of the Church's unity and the accompanying rich diversity of its life. When the Consultation on Church Union started, it saw a union in church organization. Currently there is growing convergence among the churches that the goal is not union of church organizations. The model of full communion without absorption, with which the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion have growing experience, is another approach. Further, the 1968 Lambeth Conference resolved to endorse the statement of the 1968 Assembly of the World Council of Churches that we should “work for the time when a genuinely universal council may once more speak for all Christians” and that “our interim confessional and ecumenical organizations should be tested by their capacity to lead in this direction.”
In view of the need to coordinate the Episcopal Church's approaches, a National Ecumenical Consultation met in 1978 to clarify our ecumenical posture, restate essentials to which we are committed, and formulate goals. The Consultation proposed, and the 1979 General Convention adopted, an important Declaration on Unity stating that the visible unity we seek is “one eucharistic fellowship” in the form of “a communion of Communions, based upon acknowledgment of catholicity and apostolicity”. This declaration provides guidelines for evaluating future proposals from the dialogues.
Also at the 1979 Convention a Standard for Occasional Eucharistic Sharing with Commentary was approved to guide this Church’s practice with members of churches with which we seek full communion.
The 1968 Lambeth Conference urged the Anglican Communion to order its present relationships with other churches in light of the “Lund Principle,” set forth at the 1952 Conference on Faith and Order at Lund, Sweden. The 1976 General Convention responded with its own version, “that the Episcopal Church at every level of its life be urged to act together and in concert with other churches of Jesus Christ in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction or church order compel us to act separately.” The Convention urged the dioceses to establish “a similar policy of ecumenical review and planning.”
Earlier in this century as ecumenism flourished, national and global efforts toward unity resulted in the appointment of diocesan ecumenical officers to report on these developments to local churches in order to solicit their support. Diocesan ecumenical officers now work with church-wide bodies in recognition of the fact that each diocese along with its congregations has an ecumenical agenda of its own in its unique situation, consistent with the overall ecumenical vision of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. The diocesan officers organized themselves into the national association of Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (EDEO) in 1974 and began to exchange information, carry out surveys, and to aid dioceses in evaluating proposals from the dialogues. In 2005 this organization formally became the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical and Interfaith Officers’ Network (EDEIO).
A National Consultation on Ecumenism in the Local Church took place in 1982. A pioneering step, it set forth the Anglican understanding of the local church (the diocese with its congregations and other ministries as a whole) and its relation to the universal Church. It clarified the integral relation of the Church's mission--prayer and worship, proclamation of the Gospel, and promotion of justice, peace, and love--to the unity of the local church. It proposed strategies to strengthen reciprocal communication between the local church, the national church, and the universal Church. J.J. Packer once wrote that “unity is always a matter of degree.” A good goal for the diocese is to do what it can to intensify the degree of visible unity among those whom God has already made one in Christ by baptism and faith. A good starting point for a diocese is to discern the mission of the whole Christian community in its particular place, and then to describe its own mission strategy within that wider context.
The 1991 General Convention called for a National Consultation on Ecclesiology. It met in 1993 under the theme “Ecumenism of the Possible: Witness, Theology, and the Future Church” to evaluate positive and negative developments during the eventful fifteen years since the 1978 National Consultation. Its report and papers were published to guide local and church-wide bodies. It is increasingly clear that real ecumenical success consists in our perseverance to press on together with humble respect for each other, even when full compatibility on faith and order and mission still lies in the future.
The first great impetus toward visible unity came more than 20 years later at the first World Missionary Conference held in 1910. Here too, Episcopalians played a prominent role. Bishop Charles H. Brent, Missionary Bishop in the Philippines, made a passionate plea for unity in a world that was “too strong for a divided Church.” Bishop Brent also argued that churches needed not only better cooperation in the mission field, the reason for calling the Missionary Conference, but deeper understandings of one another. An Episcopal layman, Silas McBee, also played an important part. He presented a letter to an Italian cardinal and later, as a member of the continuation committee, journeyed through Europe meeting with kings and leaders of Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Churches in the company of John R. Mott.
The first formal proposal for a World Conference on Faith and Order was made by the 1910 General Convention on a motion by William T. Manning, then rector of Trinity Church, New York City. The Episcopal Church has participated in each subsequent World Conference on Faith and Order and World Conference on Life and Work. The 1937 General Convention endorsed the proposal for a World Council of Churches and was a founding member when the two series of world conferences came together in 1948. Later, the International Missionary Council and the World Council of Christian Education merged with the World Council of Churches.
In the United States, the Episcopal Church was slow in joining the Federal Council of Churches, but became a member in 1940, and has been a member of its successor, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, from its formation in 1950.
The World Council of Churches and various national councils have been means through which nearly all Provinces of the Anglican Communion join with all Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Old Catholic, and most Protestant Churches to bear common witness, express common concerns for service, explore their differences, and seek “visible unity in one faith and one eucharistic fellowship.” The theological work of Faith and Order in councils of churches has played an important role in harmonizing the initiatives of the churches for visible unity.
Initiatives of the Episcopal Church to draw closer to Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists in the first half of the twentieth century produced no direct results. Greater success accompanied efforts to establish concordats of full communion (then called intercommunion) on the basis of the Bonn Agreement with the European Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht (England, 1932; USA, 1940), and in 1946 and 1949 it was made clear that the relationship included the Polish National Catholic Church in the USA. (In 1978 the PNCC terminated sacramental communion with the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada because of their ordination of women to the priesthood).
Full communion was established in 1961 on the same basis with the Philippine Independent Church, a body comparable in size to the Episcopal Church in the USA. Full communion with the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar followed in 1976.
Early in the twentieth century another movement arose to form “united churches” in nations or regions. The Church of South India, perhaps the best known of these, was inaugurated in 1947 with the union of Anglican dioceses, the Methodist Church, and the United Church (itself made up of Presbyterian, Congregational, Dutch Reformed, and Basel Mission Churches). It is based on the Lambeth Quadrilateral and claims to preserve the congregational, presbyterian, and episcopal elements. At the end of an interim period of 30 years, after its presbyters were all episcopally ordained, the 1976 General Convention established full communion with the Church of South India at the 1976 General Convention. The 1973 General Convention had already established full communion with the Church of North India, the Church of Pakistan, and the Church of Bangladesh, unions of Anglican dioceses with several other churches which incorporated the historic ministry of bishops, presbyters and deacons from its inauguration.
In the 1961 General Convention joined the United Presbyterian Church in inviting the United Church of Christ and the Methodist Church to explore the possibility of visible unity, an initiative which came to be known as the Consultation on Church Union. While some of the participating churches have united (Evangelical United Brethren with the Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church with the United Presbyterian Church), for many years the Consultation explored “covenanting communion” as a form of visible unity. It has been the principal forum in the USA for dialogue between Anglicans and the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church USA, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and the International Council of Community Churches. In 2002 COCU became Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC) and focused by intensive study on reaching agreement on ordained ministry and in combating racism.
The second half of the twentieth century has been characterized by a more inclusive ecumenical movement, stimulated especially by the Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1964) and the extraordinary pace of change in the modern world. International dialogues were initiated by the Christian World Communions: Anglican - Roman Catholic (1966), Lutheran - Roman Catholic (1965), Anglican - Lutheran (1970), Anglican - Orthodox (1973), Orthodox - Roman Catholic (1980), Anglican - Reformed (1981) and Lutheran -Orthodox (1981), to mention only a few. This new network of relationships has led to growth in understanding and significant theological and doctrinal convergences and agreements. The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission was the first to submit a final report to the sponsoring churches for evaluation and judgment by the appropriate authorities.
Many international dialogues are paralleled by national dialogues. The Episcopal Church has been involved in the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Consultation, the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation, and the Lutheran-Episcopal Dialogue, all of which have produced important theological and pastoral results. The multiplication of national and international bilateral and multilateral dialogues and consultations raised the concern that the visible unity of the Church should not be dealt with piecemeal, but rather that each separate activity complement all the others. The 1967 General Convention spoke to this question in an important policy statement.
.
What is the aim or goal of all these consultations, commissions, dialogues, and conferences? The 1961 New Delhi Statement, issued by the Assembly of the World Council of Churches and approved by the 1964 General Convention, was one influential effort to answer this question. The 1968 Assembly of the World Council supplemented New Delhi, pointing to the dynamically catholic dimension of the Church's unity and the accompanying rich diversity of its life. When the Consultation on Church Union started, it saw a union in church organization. Currently there is growing convergence among the churches that the goal is not union of church organizations. The model of full communion without absorption, with which the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion have growing experience, is another approach. Further, the 1968 Lambeth Conference resolved to endorse the statement of the 1968 Assembly of the World Council of Churches that we should “work for the time when a genuinely universal council may once more speak for all Christians” and that “our interim confessional and ecumenical organizations should be tested by their capacity to lead in this direction.”
In view of the need to coordinate the Episcopal Church's approaches, a National Ecumenical Consultation met in 1978 to clarify our ecumenical posture, restate essentials to which we are committed, and formulate goals. The Consultation proposed, and the 1979 General Convention adopted, an important Declaration on Unity stating that the visible unity we seek is “one eucharistic fellowship” in the form of “a communion of Communions, based upon acknowledgment of catholicity and apostolicity”. This declaration provides guidelines for evaluating future proposals from the dialogues.
Also at the 1979 Convention a Standard for Occasional Eucharistic Sharing with Commentary was approved to guide this Church’s practice with members of churches with which we seek full communion.
The 1968 Lambeth Conference urged the Anglican Communion to order its present relationships with other churches in light of the “Lund Principle,” set forth at the 1952 Conference on Faith and Order at Lund, Sweden. The 1976 General Convention responded with its own version, “that the Episcopal Church at every level of its life be urged to act together and in concert with other churches of Jesus Christ in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction or church order compel us to act separately.” The Convention urged the dioceses to establish “a similar policy of ecumenical review and planning.”
Earlier in this century as ecumenism flourished, national and global efforts toward unity resulted in the appointment of diocesan ecumenical officers to report on these developments to local churches in order to solicit their support. Diocesan ecumenical officers now work with church-wide bodies in recognition of the fact that each diocese along with its congregations has an ecumenical agenda of its own in its unique situation, consistent with the overall ecumenical vision of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. The diocesan officers organized themselves into the national association of Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (EDEO) in 1974 and began to exchange information, carry out surveys, and to aid dioceses in evaluating proposals from the dialogues. In 2005 this organization formally became the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical and Interfaith Officers’ Network (EDEIO).
A National Consultation on Ecumenism in the Local Church took place in 1982. A pioneering step, it set forth the Anglican understanding of the local church (the diocese with its congregations and other ministries as a whole) and its relation to the universal Church. It clarified the integral relation of the Church's mission--prayer and worship, proclamation of the Gospel, and promotion of justice, peace, and love--to the unity of the local church. It proposed strategies to strengthen reciprocal communication between the local church, the national church, and the universal Church. J.J. Packer once wrote that “unity is always a matter of degree.” A good goal for the diocese is to do what it can to intensify the degree of visible unity among those whom God has already made one in Christ by baptism and faith. A good starting point for a diocese is to discern the mission of the whole Christian community in its particular place, and then to describe its own mission strategy within that wider context.
The 1991 General Convention called for a National Consultation on Ecclesiology. It met in 1993 under the theme “Ecumenism of the Possible: Witness, Theology, and the Future Church” to evaluate positive and negative developments during the eventful fifteen years since the 1978 National Consultation. Its report and papers were published to guide local and church-wide bodies. It is increasingly clear that real ecumenical success consists in our perseverance to press on together with humble respect for each other, even when full compatibility on faith and order and mission still lies in the future.