From Malines to ARCIC: The Malines Conversations Commemorated

From Malines to ARCIC: The Malines Conversations Commemorated. Edited by Adelbert Denaux in collaboration with John A. Dick. Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium vol # 130. Leuven, Belgium: University Press, 1997. ix + 317 pp. 1800 Belgian Francs (paper).

This volume is a collection of materials on Anglican-Roman Catholic relations as they pertain to the seventy-fifth anniversary of the famous although unofficial "Malines Conversations" between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, involving Cardinal Mercier and Lord Halifax, that took place in the city of Mechelen (Malines), Belgium, in 1921. Divided into three parts, it includes the addresses given before the four hundred participants at that commemoration on August 31, 1996, as well as some historical documents and updated bibliographies.

Part I comprises an address given at this commemoration (in French) by Dom Emmanuel Lanne of the abbey of Chevetogne on the ecumenical context that existed at the time of the Malines Conversations, a reprint of an English translation of Dom Lambert Beauduin's provocative proposal of 1925 entitled "The Anglican Church United not Absorbed," reprints of the texts of the original Anglican and Roman Catholic statements issued at Malines, and fresh essays by Professor John Dick (of the Catholic University of Leuven, co-editor of this volume) on the "The Unfinished Agenda" from Malines and by Professor Adelbert Denaux (the principal editor, also of Leuven) on "Ecumenical Contacts between Belgium and England since the Malines Conversations." There is also an updated bibliography on the Malines Conversations by Professor Dick as well as his personalized response to reviews of his earlier book, The Malines Conversations Revisited (1989). Part II, in addition to the ceremonial addresses given in 1996 and a list of the participants, presents fresh essays on the work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission by Adelbert Denaux and Jean-Marie Tillard (Roman Catholics, both writing in French) and Christopher Hill (Anglican). Part III offers in 115 pages a valuable ARCIC bibliography (1966 to 1996), subdivided chronologically, thematically, and geographically, and compiled by Denaux and Sister Lorelei Fuchs of the Graymoor Ecumenical Institute. Numerous imprecisions of editing throughout the work do not destroy the value of its contents.

Bishop Christopher Hill, in the one Anglican essay contained within this volume, very helpfully underscores the way in which the ARCIC process and its subsequent reception helped to further Anglicans' understanding of their own identity by convincing them of the need for some better international process of decision-making if they are to cohere as one communion of churches. However, of the reception of the Final Report of ARCIC I within the Roman Catholic Church, commenting upon the dismal response given by the Vatican, he remarks: "It now seems to be accepted that the composite drafters of the CDF's Response to ARCIC had hardly understood [the ARCIC methodology] and were seeking the familiar identity and security of Counter Reformation terminology" (p. 139). If this be true, though, and if someone who was so significantly involved "from the inside" as Christopher Hill is now willing to admit this, then why not name who those anonymous drafters of the Vatican's document (itself unsigned) were, and let them own their document and speak for themselves? Must Anglican politeness and Roman secrecy allow them to die before future historians ferret out their names and perhaps impute to them even less noble motives?

By far the shortest of the fresh essays in this book (just over four pages) is that of Professor Dick on "The Unfinished Agenda" from 1925. He observes: "The men at Malines dreamed dreams and shared visions. They were unanimously emphatic about the absolute necessity for visible Catholic unity. Yet it escaped them" (p. 76). This could also be said of the more recent ARCIC process.

J. ROBERT WRIGHT

General Theological Seminary New York, New York

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