Fifty years of Methodist Roman Catholic dialogue

Transcription

1 HOLINESS THE JOURNAL OF WESLEY HOUSE CAMBRIDGE Fifty years of Methodist Roman Cathoic diaogue David M. Chapman THE REVD DR DAVID M. CHAPMAN is a presbyter of the Methodist Church in Britain currenty serving as Chair of the Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire District. He is a member of the British Methodist Faith and Order Committee and Co-Chair of the Joint Internationa Commission for Diaogue between the Word Methodist Counci and the Roman Cathoic Church david.chapman@behdistrict.org.uk Bishop s Stortford, UK This artice examines the origins and deveopment of biatera theoogica diaogue between Methodists and Roman Cathoics at a word eve since it commenced in 1967 as a resut of the Second Vatican Counci. In taking stock of the diaogue, consideration is given to what has been achieved in successive phases during the past fifty years. A number of theoogica issues are identified as requiring further diaogue. The artice concudes by outining the present agenda of the internationa Methodist Roman Cathoic diaogue commission and briefy considering the future prospects for theoogica diaogue at a word eve in the context of contemporary ecumenism. THEOLOGICAL DIALOGUE ECUMENISM METHODISM ROMAN CATHOLICISM ISSN HOLINESS The Journa of Wesey House Cambridge Copyright author Voume 3 (2017) Issue 2 (Hoiness & Reformation): pp

2 David M. Chapman The bitter theoogica egacy of Reformation controversies ensured that Methodists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries adopted a strongy anti- Roman Cathoic stance. We into the twentieth century, Methodist catechisms and schoarship invariaby maintained a poemica stance against Roman Cathoic doctrine, actua and supposed. That Methodists and Roman Cathoics in fact have much in common in the way they describe hoy iving in terms of growth in grace towards entire sanctification is therefore a comparativey recent discovery, as a resut of mutua engagement and reassessment through theoogica diaogue. The immediate origins of forma theoogica diaogue between Methodists and Roman Cathoics ie in the Second Vatican Counci ( ), which was attended by a number of accredited observers from other word communions, incuding the Word Methodist Counci. The principa Methodist observers at the Second Vatican Counci, abert Outer (United States) and Harod Roberts (Great Britain), took advantage of the unprecedented opportunity afforded by their status to engage with the Roman Cathoic bishops and theoogica advisers assembed in Rome for the purpose of bringing up to date the forma teaching of the Roman Cathoic Church. 1 Though not permitted to speak during the forma sessions of the Counci, the observers had fu access to the papers and were invited to participate in seminars convened by the speciay constituted Secretariat for the Promotion of Christian Unity so that ecumenica voices coud be heard in the process of shaping the fina text of the conciiar teaching documents. Nowadays, it is commony accepted that the Second Vatican Counci signaed the start of a new era in reations between Roman Cathoics and other Christians after centuries of mutua condemnation stemming from sixteenthcentury Reformation controversies in the West and the Great Schism between East and West in However, this was far from cear at the time due to the prevaiing eccesiastica cimate of mutua suspicion and distrust, reinforced by disquieting memories of the authoritarian and centraising outcome of the First Vatican Counci ( ). Both beforehand and during the eary sessions, there was widespread suspicion in Protestant circes that Pope John XXIII s rea intention in summoning a Second Vatican Counci was to reassert the excusive caims of the Roman Cathoic Church and its prohibition on a forms of ecumenism other than that which urged the separated Christians to return to the Church of Rome. 182

3 Fifty years of Methodist Roman Cathoic diaogue Yet, despite attempts by the curia to impose a conservative theoogica agenda, commentators began to note progressive voices among the bishops and the emergence of a fresh way of describing the Roman Cathoic Church in terms that accepted the eccesia reaity of other Christian communities. Correspondingy, conciiar teaching was expressed in more nuanced theoogica anguage than had previousy appeared to be the case in the poemica exchanges between the Reformers and their opponents. Convinced, therefore, that the teaching of the Second Vatican Counci provided a starting point for a fruitfu conversation across the Reformation divide, abert Outer made determined efforts to persuade key figures in the Word Methodist Counci that the prospect of a forma theoogica diaogue with the Roman Cathoic Church presented a unique ecumenica opportunity to address historic differences between Methodists and Roman Cathoics. The Word Methodist Counci meeting in London in 1966 duy accepted an invitation from a renamed and enhanced Pontifica Counci for Promoting Christian Unity to appoint representatives to a joint internationa commission for theoogica diaogue. 2 The joint commission first met in ariccia, near Rome, in October 1967 and has remained active ever since so that it is among the most enduring and productive of the biatera theoogica diaogues at a word eve. 3 The commission continues to be sponsored, and its members appointed, by the Word Methodist Counci and the Hoy See s Pontifica Counci for Promoting Christian Unity. The fiftieth anniversary of Methodist Roman Cathoic diaogue at a word eve happens to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther s Ninety-Five Theses protesting against the sae of indugences. Whether Luther actuay naied the text to the door of the Caste Church in Wittenberg, Saxony, on 31 October 1517 as is popuary supposed, his Ninety-Five Theses set in train a series of events that ignited the fires of Reformation and division in Europe. To mark its own jubiee in October 2017, the joint commission wi assembe in Rome for a series of commemorative events, incuding an audience with Pope Francis, arranged jointy by the Pontifica Counci for Promoting Christian Unity and the Methodist Ecumenica Office, Rome. The recent estabishment of a Methodist Ecumenica Office in Rome under its director, the Revd Dr Tim Macquiban, was made possibe by the deepening reationship between Methodists and Roman Cathoics, as a resut of the improved ecumenica cimate to which biatera theoogica diaogue contributed. 183

4 David M. Chapman Summary of internationa Methodist Roman Cathoic diaogue Since 1967, there have been ten successive rounds of conversations, each timed to coincide with the five-yeary cyce of Word Methodist Counci meetings. at the concusion of each round, the joint commission issues a substantia report to its sponsors in the form of a convergence statement. In common with the practice in other biatera diaogues, these reports are not authoritative statements on behaf of the Roman Cathoic Church or the Word Methodist Counci but instead are pubished by the joint commission for study and reception among Methodists and Roman Cathoics. The text is avaiabe eectronicay on the Vatican and Word Methodist Counci websites; earier texts can be found in the Growth in Agreement series compied by the Word Counci of Churches. The work of the joint commission has been incrementa, buiding painstakingy on the secure theoogica foundations estabished in successive rounds of diaogue. The initia phase of the diaogue between 1967 and 1976 produced two reports registering outine agreement on a range of topics: the Denver Report (Denver, 1971) and Growth in Understanding (Dubin, 1976). Between 1977 and 2001, a second and more systematic phase of diaogue focused on aspects of core Christian doctrines in order to estabish a secure theoogica framework in which to deveop a convergence in historicay divisive issues. The tite of each report signifies its particuar subject: Towards an Agreed Statement on the Hoy Spirit (Honouu, 1981); Towards a Statement on the Church (Nairobi, 1986); The Apostoic Tradition (Singapore, 1991); The Word of Life: A Statement on Reveation and Faith (Rio de Janeiro, 1996); and Speaking the Truth in Love: Teaching Authority among Cathoics and Methodists (Brighton, 2001). Between 2002 and 2011, a third phase of diaogue produced two substantia reports on eccesioogy. The Grace Given You in Christ: Cathoics and Methodists Refect Further on the Church (Seou, 2006) sets out what Methodists and Roman Cathoics are abe to recognise in each other as being of the Church and expores a possibe exchange of gifts. 4 In response to the need to integrate theoogica diaogue and church ife, the report states a number of guiding principes for Methodist Roman Cathoic reations. Encountering Christ the Saviour: Church and Sacraments (Durban, 2011) revisits seected topics addressed in the andmark mutiatera convergence statement 184

5 Fifty years of Methodist Roman Cathoic diaogue Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (WCC, 1982) in order to extend and deepen existing agreement between Methodists and Roman Cathoics. The overarching theoogica framework is provided by the scriptura theme of the participation of a the baptised in the Pascha mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ. In investigating the Eucharist as the sacramenta memoria of Christ s saving death and resurrection, the joint commission drew on the negected treasury of eucharistic hymns by Chares Wesey as the basis for proposing that Cathoic anguage of a eucharistic offering of Christ s sacrifice and Methodist anguage of peading that sacrifice can be reconcied (Durban, 132). The treatment of ordained ministry in Encountering Christ the Saviour seeks to deepen and extend agreement between Methodists and Roman Cathoics. Despite their Weseyan heritage, Methodists have tended to espouse the indiscriminate Protestant idea of the priesthood of a beievers in reaction to Roman Cathoic teaching on the ordained ministry as a sacrificing priesthood. The report deveops a more nuanced understanding that Christ continues to exercise his priesty ministry in the Church by means of the ministeria priesthood together with the common priesthood of the faithfu (Durban, 189). Since 2012, a new phase of diaogue has begun to focus more cosey on the Christian ife as experienced in its corporate and persona dimensions. The Ca to Hoiness: From Gory to Gory (Houston, 2016) buids on previous reports to consider how Methodists and Roman Cathoics understand the nature and effect of divine grace upon the human person and the impications for the Christian ife ( 4). The report investigates the grace that enabes, the grace that justifies and the grace that sanctifies. The historicay divisive issues of good works and merit and the assurance of faith and savation are set in a new context of a shared understanding of justification. The report expores simiarities and differences reating to practices of hoy iving in the two traditions and adopts a fresh approach to the historicay controversia issues of prayer for the departed and the intercession of the saints. What has Methodist Roman Cathoic diaogue achieved? On 31 October 1999, after years of theoogica diaogue and the ast-minute addition of a carifying annex, representatives of the Lutheran Word Federation and the Pontifica Counci for Promoting Christian Unity signed a Joint 185

6 David M. Chapman Decaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), which encompasses a consensus on basic truths of the doctrine of justification and shows that the remaining differences in its expication are no onger the occasion for doctrina condemnations (JDDJ, 5). 5 Since justification by faith ay at the heart of the dispute between the Reformers and their opponents, the JDDJ was widey haied in the secuar press as bringing to an end haf a miennium of division in the Western Church. But to what extent is it credibe to caim that Reformation controversies have been resoved and are no onger church-dividing? Responding to the JDDJ shorty afterwards, Geoffrey Wainwright posed a question that remains pertinent in this 500th anniversary year of Luther s protest against the sae of indugences: Is the Reformation over? 6 Noting the very precise anguage and imited scope of the JDDJ, Wainwright concuded that an unequivoca Yes was impossibe, whie a resounding No woud aso be untrue to the considerabe achievements of the ecumenica twentieth century. 7 In 2006, after an extensive consutation among member churches, officers of the Word Methodist Counci meeting in Seou joined Lutherans and Roman Cathoics in signing a Methodist Statement of association with the JDDJ, thereby extending the theoogica consensus on justification to incude Methodism. 8 If, to a certain extent, unfinished theoogica business remains from the Reformation, what has been the achievement of ecumenica diaogue with Roman Cathoics in the past haf-century? In 2009, shorty before his retirement as President of the Pontifica Counci for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardina Water Kasper summarised the fruits that can be harvested from the biatera diaogues between the Roman Cathoic Church and the major traditions in the Western Church angican, Methodist, Lutheran and Reformed. 9 The rich harvest identified by Cardina Kasper incuded: a shared apostoic faith; a fresh and renewed understanding of the reation between Scripture and tradition; basic agreement on justification; deepened understanding of the nature of the Church; and new approaches to the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. The fruit of Methodist Roman Cathoic diaogue is convenienty summarised in a convergence text pubished by the joint commission, entited Together to Hoiness: 40 years of Methodist and Roman Cathoic Diaogue (2011). Cardina Kasper aso identified a number of areas requiring further diaogue: the need for a common theoogica anguage; fundamenta hermeneutica probems; a shared theoogica anthropoogy; and the sacramenta nature of the Church. To these, the present author, writing in a persona capacity, woud 186

7 Fifty years of Methodist Roman Cathoic diaogue add a number of other issues for future diaogue between Methodists and Roman Cathoics: the participation of the ordinary faithfu in authoritative discernment in the ife of the Church by virtue of their baptisma vocation to share in the ministry of Christ; the ordained ministry in reation to the ministry of the peope of God and the service of a the baptised; the mutua reationship between the saints beow and the saints above within the communion of saints and the way in which the benefits of Christ appy to the faithfu departed as members of his body, the Church; the roe of persona episkopē exercised by bishops and others in reation to the corporate episkopē exercised by conciiar and synodica structures, incuding Methodist conferences; the structura impications of a shared beief that the Church itsef is a means of grace; universa primacy and the Petrine ministry of the Bishop of Rome as pope. Current diaogue between Methodists and Roman Cathoics as things presenty stand, the future agenda is sufficient to keep the joint commission in work for at east another haf-century: theoogica diaogue is a ong hau. Meanwhie, the commission s next report is schedued for presentation to the Word Methodist Counci meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, in Continuing to focus on the Christian ife in its corporate and persona dimensions, the commission has chosen as its theme for this current round of diaogue the question of how Methodists and Roman Cathoics respectivey ive out their reconciiation in Christ in the Church and how together they can procaim a gospe of reconciiation to the word invoving peace, justice (socia and economic) and the integrity of creation. The theoogica framework in which the joint commission wi approach its work is that of the reconciing work of God in Christ (2 Cor 5:18 20). 187

8 David M. Chapman addressing the question of reconciiation in Christ wi invove giving attention to the nature of Christian community, the bonds of communion and the structures of unity. Thus the topic chosen for the 2021 report is cosey reated to that of the previous report (Houston, 2016). as the joint commission noted in that report: The ca to hoiness is aso a ca to unity in the Church, the body of Christ. Jesus prayed for his discipes to be sanctified in the truth that they might a be one (John 17.17, 21). Hoiness and Christian unity beong together as twin aspects of the same reationship with the Trinity such that the pursuit of either invoves the pursuit of the other. (Houston, 5) Concusion as ong ago as 1986, the joint commission proposed that the goa of theoogica diaogue between Methodists and Roman Cathoics shoud be nothing ess than fu communion in faith, mission and sacramenta ife (Nairobi, 20). This goa has been restated subsequenty in severa reports, most recenty in The Ca to Hoiness (Houston, 5) and wi be cosey investigated in the present round of diaogue. But what of the ong-term prospects for sustaining an internationa theoogica diaogue between Methodists and Roman Cathoics in the face of competing demands for scarce resources and other priorities such as evangeisation and the urgent need for interreigious diaogue? To advocate continuing theoogica diaogue between the different Christian traditions in the stye of the cassica Faith and Order movement is to swim against the tide of so much contemporary ecumenism, which regards shared mission as a sufficient goa. If cooperation in mission is a that matters, theoogica diaogue becomes redundant. Esewhere, I have argued that the reated concept of reconcied diversity does not adequatey express the fu visibe unity of the Church. 10 In the face of competing agendas in contemporary ecumenism, Methodists are faced with a choice of ecumenica method and horizons in the twenty-first century. 11 Essentiay, their eventua choice wi refect where Methodists seek to ocate themseves eccesioogicay in reation to the one hoy cathoic and apostoic Church

9 Notes Fifty years of Methodist Roman Cathoic diaogue 1. See abert Outer, Methodist Observer at Vatican II, Westminster, MD: Newman Press, Nationa biatera diaogues between Methodists and Roman Cathoics were subsequenty estabished in the United States, Great Britain, New Zeaand and austraia (now Uniting Church Roman Cathoic diaogue). These diaogues are beyond the scope of the present artice. 3. For a detaied study, see David M. Chapman, In Search of the Cathoic Spirit: Methodists and Roman Cathoics in Diaogue, Peterborough: Epworth Press, For the exchange of gifts, see David M. Chapman, a Methodist Perspective on Cathoic Learning, in Pau D. Murray (ed.), Receptive Ecumenism and the Ca to Cathoic Learning: Exporing a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_ _cath-uth-joint-decaration_en.htm (accessed 31 Juy 2017). 6. Geoffrey Wainwright, Is the Reformation Over? Miwaukee, WI: Marquette University, Wainwright, Is the Reformation Over? p In 2017, the Word Communion of Reformed Churches aso signed a decaration of association with the JDDJ. 9. Water Kasper, Harvesting the Fruits: Basic Aspects of Christian Faith in Ecumenica Diaogue, London: Continuum, See David M. Chapman, Ecumenism and the Visibe Unity of the Church: Organic Union or Reconcied Diversity?, Eccesioogy 11 (2015), pp For Methodist ecumenica method, see David M. Chapman, The Methodist Contribution to Ecumenism, in Pau McPartan and Geoffrey Wainwright (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Ecumenica Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, For Methodist eccesioogica method, see David M. Chapman, Methodism and the Church, in Pau avis (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Eccesioogy, Oxford: Oxford University Press,

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