Survey of Church Union Negotiations 1996-1999

This relationship is, for both churches, part of a complex web of ecumenical relationships. Both churches explore many of the issues of local ecumenical partnerships through the multilateral forum of the group for local unity of Churches Together in England. They tackle the theological issues through the theology and unity group of CTE.

The Methodist Church is involved in formal conversations with the Church of England, to which the URC sends two ecumenical participants. All three churches meet for informal conversations that are related to the formal ones. The URC expects to unite with the Congregational Union of Scotland on 1 April 2000. Both churches are seriously committed to the Scottish Church initiative for union and are signatories to the Welsh covenant, which is currently seeking to be able to appoint an ecumenical bishop.

The bilateral relationship between the Methodist Church and the URC, important as it is, is only one part of the kaleidoscope that is the ecumenical movement in the UK today.

Correspondent: Rev. Sheila Maxey, Secretary for Ecumenical Relations, United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom, Chair of the Methodist/United Reformed Church Liaison Committee, 86 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9RT, UK, tel. +44.171 916.20.20, direct 020.79.16.86.52, international +44.20 79.16.86.52, fax +44.171 916.2021, e-mail sheila.maxey@urc.org.uk and ecumenical@urc.org.uk

The Church of England in relation to other churches in Britain, Ireland and the Continent of Europe

PAUL AVIS

In its ecumenical work the Church of England has followed a policy of unity by stages. The ultimate goal, reaffirmed by the 1998 Lambeth conference of all Anglican bishops, is full visible unity. In harmony with the tradition of Faith and Order, we understand this to mean all in each place (every local church led by its bishop) in spiritual and structural communion and unity with all in every place (all other local churches, led by their bishops). This view of full visible unity entails several aspects: a shared faith, mutual acceptance of members, interchangeability of ministers, common structures of conciliarity, and a single focus of oversight in the bishop. A commitment between the Church of England and another church to work together towards full visible unity is grounded in a shared view of what visible unity entails. Our ecumenical conversations therefore normally begin by asking what we agree in faith, including our view of visible unity.

The Church of England does not expect to attain the goal of full visible unity with any church in one leap. The method of unity by stages has a long history. Even the Anglican-Methodist scheme of the 1960s envisaged a two-stage process. The Meissen Agreement (1992) with the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) also assumes a staged approach. It involves mutual acknowledgment as true and apostolic churches, with true and apostolic ministries, coupled with a mutual commitment to work towards full visible unity. In other words, it presupposes that full visible unity has not yet been attained. For the Church of England, as for the Anglican communion generally (as the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral makes clear), the ministry of bishops in continuity and communion across time and space (an expression of apostolicity and of catholicity) is necessary for full visible unity, because the bishop is seen as a focus of unity. The same theological pattern is seen in the Fetter Lane Agreement between the Church of England and the Church of Ireland, on the one hand, and the Moravian Church in Britain and Ireland, on the other.