AIF NEWS NOVEMBER 2014 Dear Member, Welcome to this latest edition of AIF News. It has been a busy few months and so there are a number of items in this edition with as well as details of AIF events and international issues. Please do take time to read through the different articles and if you have any contributions to make to future editions of AIF News please do let me know. Thank you as ever for your support. With warm wishes Doral Doral Hayes Executive Development Officer Association of Interchurch Families Contents 1. AIF Website 2. AIF Facebook page 3. AIF Annual London Meeting 2015 4. AIF Weekend 2015 5. AIF Conference the way ahead 6. Interchurch Families and the Synod on the Family, 4-25 October 2015 7. Daily Word from the international AIF website 8. Staff Changes at the Anglican Centre in Rome 9. Forthcoming External Events Additional Document: AIF Conference 2014 Report by Rufus Ballaster
1. AIF Website A large project for the organisation over the last year has been the development of a new website which aims to provide more information and be more accessible to enquirers. This new site also includes the facility for AIF to manage the content themselves without relying on external IT support so heavily. The new site will be launched in December 2014 and I will send round a separate email to members once it is live to let everyone know. The web address will remain the same www.interchurchfamilies.org.uk 2. AIF Facebook Page Following the AIF weekend Conference this year Paddy Nugent kindly volunteered to set up an AIF Facebook page. This has now been done and please do visit the page and like it to share it with your facebook friends. The link to the page is https://www.facebook.com/interchurchfamilies 3. AIF Annual London Meeting 2015 February 7 th 2015 Next year s Annual London Meeting will take place on 7 th February at the Assumption Convent, Heythrop College, Kensington Square, London. The day will start at 10.30am and aim to finish by 4.00pm Our speaker will be Bishop Tim Thornton of Truro, who is our new Anglican President. Bishop Tim has a strong interest in ecumenical matters and is co-chair of the English Anglican-Roman Catholic Committee (ARCC). Bishop Tim and his colleagues in English ARCC are undertaking a review of the role of their committee and he is interested in talking with us to determine how we might be able to inform their discussion by sharing our lived experience of ecumenical domestic church. The format for the day is still being finalised and it is possible that Bishop Tim will be with us for much of the day. We will start with coffee at 10.30 and there will be an Anglican Communion service at some point during the day. More details will be provided nearer the time but if you have any questions at the current time about this event please contact the office. 4. AIF Weekend 2015 August Bank Holiday Sat 29 th to Mon 31 st August 2015, Swanwick, Derbyshire The weekend is a great opportunity to share with other couples, to make new friends and catch up with old ones and spend time worshiping together. Our children s and YAG programmes will also run again with the same team that have delivered this programme so sucessfully over the last two years. Next year s weekend currently has the working title Believing and Belonging - What does it mean in the 21 century? The planning is well underway and we already have two speakers booked the Roman Catholic Bishop Paul Hendricks and Fr Dominic Robinson who was at this years conference and wants to join us again. By definition, interchurch couples belong to different church denominations with different traditions, attitudes, and beliefs. Why do we still hold to these differing views? Over the weekend we will investigate what church loyalty means to people today. Is it affected by the churches teaching on social issues? Is there a difference between the degree of loyalty felt by older people towards the denomination of their upbringing and that expressed by today s young adults? And, if many young people now identify
themselves simply as Christians, why do the partners in an interchurch marriage stay with the church of their family tradition? This weekend will be an occasion for us to explore issues that go to the heart of what it means to be an interchurch family; to listen to the word of God; to exchange stories and recharge our spiritual batteries. All this with time for shared prayer and worship as well. A booking form is attached which can send into the office by email and make your payments via BACs or you can send in a postal form with a cheque if you prefer. Please remember that there is also bursary available to assist those in financial need who wish to attend the conference, more details are also attached. 5. AIF Conference the way ahead Changes to the future arrangements for the AIF Annual Conference Most members will be aware that this year s AGM addressed several issues concerning the future of the Association, including possible changes to the arrangements for the Annual Conference. In the wake of what was one of the most engaged AGM discussions for some time, the issue was considered at the Advisory Council in October and these two sets of deliberations, together with written responses from several members, gave rise to five recommendations which were discussed by the trustees. Decisions have now been made on each of these recommendations and the results are shown here. Background: The need for an annual conference is as strong as ever. It is one of the charity s key outputs and the cost of providing the conference should be funded as a charitable outcome in much the same way as attendance at an international event. The cost of providing the speakers, children s programme etc is thus a funded activity; we should not refer to the cost of Swanwick as a deficit or a subsidy. 1. Name of the event: Issue: It was noted that the term Conference might suggest an intellectual gathering and thus place an unconscious barrier in the minds of some who do not normally attend conferences and who might be put off attending an event at which they would feel uncomfortable or unable to participate fully. Decision: The conference will be re-named and, starting in August 2015, will be referred to as The AIF Weekend (TAW) 2. Venue: Issue: There have been many suggestions in recent years that the venue for TAW should be changed, and significant research has been undertaken to ensure that Swanwick, just about in the centre of the country, remains the most appropriate venue. Responses to the AGM paper on the implications of future trends included suggestions that the venue should be moved around the country so that on each occasion the weekend would provide a geographic advantage to members in that region. This would entail significant organisational effort in establishing a major event in a new venue and is impractical to pursue. Decision: Swanwick is confirmed as the venue for AIF residential weekends. The continuing appropriateness of this choice will be reviewed every few years.
3. When to hold The AIF Weekend Issue: Many people have told us that holding TAW over the August Bank Holiday every year prevents them attending. Clergy find it particularly difficult to attend and in recent years it has become increasingly difficult to find speakers prepared to commit to giving up their Bank Holiday and several of those who have agreed to attend have only been able to attend for part of the weekend creating difficulties in putting together a balanced programme. Decision: After next year s TAW, future weekends will be moved away from the August BH in the hope that more members and speakers will be able to attend. Discussions have been held with the Hayes Centre and the date for the 2016 AIF Weekend has been changed to the first weekend of half term, 22-23 Oct. 4. Length of the Weekend Issue: In moving the weekend away from the August BH it follows that the length of the event will have to change to accommodate those with work or school commitments on the Monday. Whilst there has not been a groundswell of complaint that 3 days is too long for a weekend away, there has been a frequent, though muted, refrain that the overall cost of the weekend is too high. Decision: The weekend will be reduced in length to Saturday lunchtime till Sunday teatime. Details of the impact on the programming of sessions and worship will be considered in due course. 5. Scheduling of the AGM Issue: With less time available for sessions during a shorter weekend it has been suggested that the AGM should be programmed at some other time of the year to make more time available at Swanwick. There are two parts to current AGMs formal business (elections and financial reports) and discussion about association activities, generated either by the chair s report or a report of some other significant activity. Decision: In 2016 the formal AGM (i.e. the business agenda) will be held at the London meeting. Discussion about association activity will continue to be planned for the residential weekend. Decisions yet to be addressed - Implications for the AIF calendar of events: Issue: Changing the date of the residential weekend requires that we also re-schedule other events in the AIF calendar to fit. The timing of the London meeting will have to move (starting in 2017) - we need more than 3-4 months gap after the weekend, even if only for planning and organisation. Dates for the Advisory Council will also have to change with all the other preparatory work required for the weekend it will not be possible to organise an AC meeting just 2-3 weeks before setting off for Swanwick. Further discussion is required around these scheduling issues decisions will be announced in ample time to inform members diaries. Finally.. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to these decisions in whatever way. The trustees have been pleased that there seems to have been a real groundswell of agreement over these issues and, although they undoubtedly represent a major change for the Association (and thus bring a degree of uncertainty and sadness for some) I think most members accept the need. A number have also talked of the opportunities that something different might well bring with it, both for the association and for them personally. As one has commented, Yes, it is a risk, but if we don t take the risk but keep repeating what we have done in the past then we may well find ourselves with an even bigger challenge in the future. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! Paul Docherty, Chair of Trustees
6. Interchurch Families and the Synod on the Family, 4-25 October 2015 Interchurch families were sorry that although there was a brief reference to mixed (Christian) marriages and inter-religious marriages needing the Church s attention and pastoral care in the lineamenta for the 2014 Extraordinary Synod on the Family, there was no section in the accompanying questionnaire that asked for views on them. However, question 9 asked respondents to identify other challenges and proposals that they considered urgent and useful to treat. Individual interchurch couples could therefore make responses through their dioceses. In England the Association of Interchurch Families decided also to take advantage of the invitation to respond directly to the Synod Office. A letter was sent to Cardinal Baldisseri in January 2014, identifying what the Association believed to be the most urgent request that its members wished to make to the Synod. This focused particularly on the strongly-felt pastoral need for on-going (not just occasional) eucharistic sharing on the part of some interchurch families. When the Instrumentum Laboris was published in June, there was again no reference to mixed marriages, but the Introduction to the document promised that the topics not included this year, those in response to question 9 in the preparatory document, will be treated in the ordinary Synod of 2015. This was reiterated in the course of the 2014 extraordinary Synod. In that Synod there were references to the marriage regulations of the Orthodox Churches, and to inter-religious marriages, but no consideration of mixed (Christian) marriages. We do not yet know what form the preparatory documents and questionnaire for the 2015 Synod will take, and any response will need to be shaped in relation to them. However, Pope Francis has chosen the theme of The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world. The Advisory Council had already proposed to respond to the 2015 Synod by focusing strongly on the pastoral needs of interchurch families in a wider, more global perspective than that of the 2014 letter, and on the ways in which the pastoral understanding of the Church could help them to fulfil better their mission in the Church and the world. This approach will fit very well with the theme chosen for the 2015 Synod. A reference to the need for on-going eucharistic sharing will be included, but as part of the wider pastoral context. The Advisory Council hoped that it might be possible to make a co-ordinated response to the 2015 Synod from the Interchurch Families International Network. The Synod is meeting at world level, so an international response would be suitable. Whether this happens depends of course on whether other groups and associations around the world wish it to do so. When we approached Thomas Knieps of the theological faculty at Leuven University, our IFIN link with Rome in succession to George Kilcourse, he felt that an IFIN initiative, giving interchurch families a united voice at global level, would have greater impact on the Synod than national submissions. (Those who were present at the AIF 40 th anniversary Swanwick conference in 2008 will remember Thomas talk on interchurch families as domestic church.) He also believes, from the experience of the 2014 Synod, that a pastoral approach based on lived experience is the most suitable one for the 2015 Synod. So the following is a suggested outline to be developed for a 2015 response. It is based on the Rome paper agreed by the 2003 Interchurch Families World Gathering. The vocation and mission of interchurch families in the Church and in the contemporary world 1. The vocation of interchurch families There are many kinds of mixed (Christian) families where the spouses share the sacraments of baptism and marriage. Here we are mainly speaking of those who would call themselves interchurch families. Husband and wife both retain their original church membership, but so far as they are able they are committed to live, worship and participate in their spouse s church also. As they strive to build up the unity of their own intimate communion of life and love, their own domestic church, they intentionally situate their efforts within the wider ecumenical commitment of the churches to which they belong. They believe that this is what God is calling them to do.
2. The mission of interchurch families The partners have many Christian resources in common, but they also share with one another the specific riches of their respective traditions. Gradually they forge together an enlarged family identity, witnessing to and sharing with their children all that is central to their shared Christian faith, together with the differing emphases that they have come to value in both their communions. By their very existence interchurch families can offer a visible sign of unity, and by their involvement in the life of two churches can help to bring their communities closer together, dispelling prejudice and spreading knowledge of progress in ecumenical dialogue. Their family celebrations can bring two ministers and congregations together in a particularly joyful way. 3. Pastoral understanding for interchurch families The problems that face interchurch families stem from the fact that the two churches represented in their one domestic church are themselves divided. Happily, since Vatican II the Catholic Church has been committed to promoting Christian unity, and this has made it possible for mixed couples to be seen in a far more positive light than was the case earlier. However, there are still areas in which the Church seems to be pulling the partners apart, rather than strengthening their unity. We would like to refer especially to the following pastoral issues: the need for marriage preparation adapted to interchurch and mixed partners the promise required by the Catholic Church before marriage, and the respect needed for parental decisions on the religious upbringing of their children the experienced need for on-going Eucharistic sharing on the part of some interchurch families the pastoral care that is prepared to welcome interchurch families as a unit, while respecting the fact that they also have loyalties to another ecclesial community This kind of pastoral understanding would encourage interchurch families in faithfulness to their vocation, and help them in their witness to Christian unity. It would also strengthen them in their mission to those mixed marriage couples who feel rejected by the Church. It would be helpful to have brief comments on this proposed outline. Would these three headings be suitable for incorporating all that interchurch families might wish to say to the 2015 Synod? What do you think are essential elements to incorporate under each heading? Please send any suggestions to Ruth Reardon (aifreardon@talk21.com) as soon as you can. Ruth Reardon 7. Daily Word from the international AIF website The Daily Word If you go to interchurchfamilies.org, the international website administered by Ray Temmerman in Canada, you will find that the home page changes every day or almost every day. Ray takes a small extract from the Interchurch Families journal, or from other items that appear on the site, and highlights it as the Daily Word. He then puts a Read More link that takes you to the article it comes from, so that if you wish you can look at the context of the quote. This has been happening for some time. But now it s even better! For the last couple of months Ray has been offering a further service to interchurch families and those who are concerned for their welfare. You don t even need to go to the website the Daily Word can come direct each day into your Inbox complete with a link that takes you through to the website if you want to Read More. You can sign up for it by using the subscription form on the website, or by emailing Ray at Ray.Temmerman@gmail.com. It s a splendid refresher or introductory course in interchurch family issues and experiences. Thank you, Ray! Ruth Reardon
An example from 11 August 2014: Daily Word How can your double commitment contribute to the churches? It may be that by bringing together twochurch resources, feeding off each other and supporting each other, you come to a quality of faith which is both more explicit and more profound. If so, you have a great opportunity to get this across. A faith which can cope with difficulties is not simply of ecclesial value; it is something which reaches out to the world. This is what ecumenism is all about; and ecumenism has to become really and deeply and fully part of church life. Archbishop Vincent Nicols to interchurch families Read More takes you through to the address that Vincent Nicols gave to the AIF annual conference held at Swanwick in 1992. 8. Staff Changes at the Anglican Centre in Rome The Anglican Centre in Rome At Swanwick the Revd Bill Snelson told us that he was retiring as Development Officer for the Anglican Centre in Rome. News of the appointment of his successor, Bridget Moss, who lives in Devon, was given in the recent number of Centro, the newsletter of the ACR. Bridget writes: I am delighted, if a little apprehensive, at the prospect of taking on the new role of Development officer at the Anglican Centre in Rome. My career to date has involved both professional fund-raising and the delivery of services for charities working in the fields of penal affairs, homelessness and mental health. In my most recent role I worked for a Christian charity that supports prisoners and their families and, through this experience, saw the way in which ecumenical working can flourish around a common cause. However, ecumenical relationships are not unknown to me. As a Roman Catholic, married to an Anglican clergyman, I have first-hand experience of the value of the relationship between Canterbury and Rome! I am thrilled and feel very privileged to undertake this role, particularly at a time described by Archbishop Moxon as a kairos for the Centre and its work. I hope I can contribute to this opportunity and look forward to meeting as many of the Centre s supporters as possible. 9. Forthcoming External Events: 28-30 September 2015 CTE Triennial Forum at The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire. September 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia for more information visit www.worldmeeting2015.org