The Right Reverend Robert D. Redmile,
                                                                     Bishop Co-adjutor of the Diocese of Richmond,
                                                                     The Christian Episcopal Church of Canada.
 
                                                                     6th March 2003.
 
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ :
 
    The article following this pastoral letter is actually a letter which was written by an Anglican Priest, and was included in the parish magazine of All Saints' Parish, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane, which is one of the oldest and best known Anglican parishes in Australia.  It encapsulates exactly what it is that we are hoping to accomplish, and the last paragraph sums up the challenge that is now before us who are fighting to uphold the Catholic Faith and to preserve our Anglican tradition.
 
    It seems as if it might now have fallen to us to meet this great challenge of bringing about full reunion between our part of the Anglican Communion and the Holy See.  Of all the Churches of the Anglican Communion (and the various "Continuing Anglican Churches"), it looks as though it is our own Christian Episcopal Church which is taking the lead in this endeavour at present; and, we devoutly hope, helping to bring about the ending of the tragedy of nearly five centuries of division between our two traditions. This is one of the many reasons why I have been attending the sessions of the Synod of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver (to which I was kindly invited by the Archbishop of Vancouver, The Most Reverend Adam Exner), and why I have been given the authority by Archbishop Davies to represent him and to act on his behalf in pursuing this object here in Canada.
 
    In order that there may be no misunderstanding of our object, I want you all to know that what it is that we are hoping to achieve is to have full communion between the Christian Episcopal Church and the Holy See, and thereby with all of those particular Churches in communion with the Holy See.
 
    This work of seeking reunion was begun in the late nineteenth century by Lord Halifax, and by other prominent Anglican Clergy and Laymen, and was continued throughout the last century.  Then finally, in 1999, the Anglican/Roman Catholic International Commission issued a joint statement entitled The Gift of Authority which was our mutual agreement on the nature of authority and the role of the Papacy within the Catholic Church.  This agreed statement, it was hoped, would be the basis upon which we Anglican Christians would be able to come back into full communion with the Apostolic See.
 
    However, the fracturing of the Anglican Communion, and the many unhappy disruptions caused by the departure of various diocesan and general synods of the Anglican Church of Canada and of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America from the Catholic Faith and Religion, have effectively put an end to the hopes for any corporate reunion of the Anglican Communion as a whole with the Apostolic See. 
 
    Now, however, it seems that God may have chosen the Christian Episcopal Church to continue this great work of bringing about the reunion of Anglican Christians with the See of Peter.
 
    It is our hope to see our Christian Episcopal Church return to full communion with the See of Peter and obedience to the Supreme Magisterium of the universal Church, while keeping our own beloved Liturgy as it is set forth in our Book of Common Prayer and preserving all of our dearly held Anglican customs and traditions.  This has been one of Archbishop Davies' most cherished hopes throughout the many years of his long episcopate, and it was an important part of his work as the Episcopal Church's Bishop of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe from 1985 to 1991.
 
    At this present time, our Anglican Communion is disintegrating, and disorder and disunity are creating chaos in what was once Anglican Christendom.  However, Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said to Saint Peter, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Saint Matthew 16.18 & 19).  The Bishop of Rome is the present-day successor of Saint Peter the Apostle; and, as Saint Peter was the Head of the Apostles, so too is the Bishop of Rome today the Head of the Bishops of the one holy Catholic Church who are themselves the successors of the twelve Apostles.  This is why the Bishop of Rome is called the "Holy Father" or "Pope" of the Church (the word "Pope" being simply an old English form of the Latin word "Papa" meaning "Father"), and it is also why it is he, as the successor of Saint Peter, who is the focus of unity for the whole of Christ's Church on earth.
 
    Indeed, as the Anglican Communion lurches from crisis to crisis, and as its bishops raise their voices against one another, it is the Pope alone who is seen not to waver in the defence and in the proclamation of the one true Catholic faith.  And, even though some of the Clergy of the Roman Catholic Church both here in Canada and in the United States are also at times in rebellion from the truth, the mechanisms developed by the Holy See over the centuries keep them well in check.
 
    As long as we Anglicans remain separated from the See of Peter, we will be tossed about like a ship without a rudder upon a turbulent sea. There is but one Church, and all the baptised faithful belong to it; but to that Church there is only one centre, and that centre is Rome where blessed Peter himself founded that succession of Bishops to continue his ministry of being the rock upon which the Rock Himself would build His holy Church.
 
    The unfortunate political and national complications that accompanied the Reformation in Europe sadly divided us from the rest of the Church.  And, indeed, when the Pope was more often a political figure than simply the chief pastor of the Church due to the politics of the time, it was perhaps inevitable that the results of abuses in the mediaeval Church would result in schism.  However, since then, the Council of Trent and the First and Second Vatican Councils have all responded to those abuses, and those abuses have either been checked or simply done away.  This is especially the case in regard to the Second Vatican Council.  Any objections that there may still have been on the part of some Anglican Christians to the doctrines taught by those Churches in communion with Rome have been removed by the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, and the problems addressed in our 1562 Articles of Religion have been thereby dealt with and corrected.
 
    In any event, as of today I have been entrusted by Archbishop Davies to begin the process of opening dialogue here in Canada between our Church and the Roman Catholic Church.  With this authority, I shall be writing to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver, The Most Reverend Adam Exner, and to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, in order to begin the process of opening dialogue.  Since we adopted the Catechism of the Catholic Church (promulgated in 1992), and the Code of Canon Law of the Latin Church (promulgated in 1983) to work in tandem with our own Anglican Canon Law, there is no real reason for communion between us to continue to remain impaired.  This, we hope, will open the doors to reunion with the Holy See.
 
    I am personally convinced of the nearness of the return of Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ. The powers of darkness are covering the earth, and even infecting parts of the Church.  The Church of Jesus Christ must have but one mind, and it must speak with one voice.  To continue in our divisions is to aid and to abet the work of the evil one.  I firmly believe that God has chosen our generation and our community of faithful Anglicans to heal the breach of four and a half centuries.  There is only one Faith, one Lord, one Baptism, and one God and Father of us all (Ephesians 4.4-6).  There must be unity within the Body of Christ, and that unity must be found in and through the successor of Blessed Peter whom Our Lord Himself called the "rock" and upon whom it was His intention to build His Church - with the promise that against that Church the gates of hell should not prevail.
 
    Please keep Archbishop Davies and me in your prayers, and please pray also for Pope John Paul II, and for our work of reunion with the Holy See.  We have now been called to be part of a wonderful work of God, but all must be done in accordance with His holy Will and in obedience to His holy Word.
 
    With prayers for God to bless you all, I am
 
            Yours in Christ Jesus most sincerely,
 
                                                                   + Bishop Robert D. Redmile.
 
Lent, 2003.
 

"LETTER FROM AUSTRALIA"

SHATTERED DREAMS AND BROKEN PROMISES

Father David Chislett, SSC.

(Published in "New Directions Magazine" October 2002.)


Until recently the reception area of our parish office was dominated by two things: a copy of the Forward in Faith Mission Statement, and a photograph of Archbishop Robert Runcie kneeling in prayer with Pope John Paul II in Canterbury Cathedral back in 1982. Superimposed on the latter were the words Jesus prayed, "May they all be one". At the base was an extract from the statement jointly signed by Runcie and the Holy Father committing our churches to full ecclesial reunion.

A couple of months ago somebody accidentally knocked the photograph of Runcie and the Pope to the floor, shattering the glass and breaking the frame - an awful symbol of what has happened to the great Anglo-Catholic dream of reunion with Rome.

Anglicans who go back to the aftermath of Vatican II, which affirmed the "special place" occupied by the churches of the Anglican Communion, will remember the sense of expectancy shared by both sides during the production of the ARCIC I documents. Even those who disapproved were more or less resigned to the fact that progress was being made. Indeed, this caused distress for some groups of evangelicals who even flagged the possibility of leaving the Anglican Communion if things went much further.

The documents on the Eucharist and the Ministry represented broad agreement between most Roman Catholics and most Anglicans. The document on Authority was more controversial. Nevertheless, the Pope's visit to Canterbury was a powerful sign of the real expectation of serious ecumenists that some momentous step on the road to reunion was just around the corner - perhaps full sacramental sharing within mixed marriages and for small communities in remote areas of rural dioceses such as we have in Australia.

All over the world, ecumenical working groups were set up to examine the ARCIC documents and work out their implications at the local level. In 1977 the Anglican and Roman Catholic Bishops of Ballarat established their "Joint Diocesan Commission" to "discuss matters pertaining to the advancement of Christian reunion". Father Graham Walden and Father George Pell (who both later become bishops) were the first co-chairmen.

Very early on, the Commission reached the view that an immediate consequence of the agreements in the areas of the Eucharist and Ministry should be a reconsideration of the Anglican claim to possess valid orders in the full Catholic sense. It wanted this matter settled in the affirmative, not just for the sake of a unified Christian witness, but also to prepare the way for shared communion for isolated communities. So the Commission presented a letter to the Anglican and Roman Catholic Bishops of Ballarat on 19th April, 1979, declaring that

". . . We believe that the relationship between the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches is already a special one, and that the movement for Christian unity is God's work. Obstacles on this path should be examined constantly by official and expert groups to see whether they are insurmountable, surmountable, or can be by-passed. The validity of Anglican orders is one such issue."

The letter outlined the historical background to the present discussions, and asked for a serious reconsideration of Anglican Orders.

The Ballarat Commission was regarded as having made "an enormous step forward", to quote Roman Catholic Bishop of Ballarat, the Most Rev'd Ronald Mulkearns. Its two page joint statement on Anglican orders was endorsed by the Australian Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference and forwarded to the Secretariat for the Promotion of Christian Unity in Rome. The Vice President of the Secretariat responded warmly in a letter of 22nd August, 1979. However, the letter went on to explain why it was not possible to proceed as the Commission had asked:

". . . there is no doubt that discussion of this issue (Anglican Orders) is further complicated by the fact of the ordination of women to the priesthood in several Churches of the Anglican Communion: the question is technically distinct from that of Anglican orders, but the link is an evident one."

The Ballarat Commission was disappointed but not completely discouraged. Throughout the 1980's it did some good scholarly work, believing that the ecumenical journey was still basically on course, and that women priests, although existing in the USA, Canada and New Zealand were an abberation that would not be accepted in most provinces of the Anglican Communion. At the same time, the nearby vigorous and growing Anglican Province of Papua New Guinea was engaged in dialogue with the Roman Catholics at a far more serious level than any other Anglican church. At least some involved in that dialogue thought that in PNG intercommunion could be achieved soon, regardless of how long it might take elsewhere. The seriousness with which Rome regarded this process accounts for the passionate plea of Pope John Paul to the Church of England not to pass legislation for the ordination of women. He saw this as a new obstacle in the way of reunion. But, as we know, his voice fell on deaf ears. The 11th November 1992 decision of the English General Synod in favour of women priests directly influenced the handful of swinging voters in the Australian General Synod which less than two weeks later passed legislation for women priests in this country. We knew then that the ecumenical dream to which many of us had committed ourselves had already begun to recede into the background.

To make matters worse, rather than accept responsibility for what they had done, most Australian liberals began to rewrite history, denying that any real ecumenical progress had been made, and in some cases, even denying that reunion was ever a practical possibility. More disturbing was the jettisoning of Archbishop Fisher's notion that there is no such thing as "Anglican doctrine" (a claim that arises from our historic formularies) or even, with the advent of George Carey et al, Robert Runcie's conviction that the "radical provisionality" of Anglicanism made reunion with the wider catholic church a fundamental imperative. In contrast to the humility of these positions, liberal Anglicanism has been remaking itself into a kind of alternative universal Church.

Seasoned Roman Catholic ecumenists, such as the mildly liberal Bishop Michael Putney of Townsville in Queensland, are now saying that the official shift in what Anglican churches mean by apostolic ministry and succession (as evidenced by Porvoo and relationships of intercommunion with Lutherans and other protestant bodies lacking the historic episcopate) now poses as great an obstacle to reunion as the ordination of women. Obviously the new-look dialogue between groups of Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops must include a revisiting of the original ARCIC statements to see if they still represent the kind of agreement celebrated in the 1970's.

In this context it is surely possible to envision the vocation of orthodox provinces, "free provinces" and "continuing churches" to evolve into an ecclesial communion able to take up the ecumenical journey where "official" Anglicanism left off.