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Windsor Report and Ecumenical Dialogue, The
Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2005 by Flynn, Kevin
ARCIC is unambiguous that koinonia, communion, is the fundamental reality of the church. The fullest treatment of the theme is found in Church as Communion. This document's rich treatment describes ecclesial communion as being
rooted in the confession of the one apostolic faith, revealed in the Scriptures, and set forth in the Creeds. It is founded upon one baptism. The one celebration of the eucharist is its pre-eminent expression and focus. It necessarily finds expression in shared commitment to the mission entrusted by Christ to his Church (para. 45).6
The Windsor Report is in continuity with this thinking as it declares that communion is both God's gift to us and our calling, a divine expectation (para. 5).7
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The Anglican and the Roman Catholic churches both recognize that koinonia is upheld and invigorated by "structures of grace." For the Windsor Report, these structures or bonds of communion are "a common pattern of liturgical life rooted in the tradition of the Books of Common Prayer; shaped by the continual reading, both corporate and private, of the Holy Scriptures; rooted in its history through the See of Canterbury; and connected through a web of relationships-of bishops, consultative bodies, companion dioceses, projects of common mission, engagement with ecumenical partners" (para. 7). In this section, the authors of the Report are evidently trying to hold together two aspects of koinonia that can be distinguished but never separated, namely the visible dimension of the church's life and its animating, divinely given source of life.8 Here the Report is consistent with Church as Communion (para. 43), which insists that it is "inadequate to speak only of an invisible spiritual unity as the fulfilment of Christ's will for the Church; the profound communion fashioned by the Spirit requires visible expression." The Windsor Report is thus largely in continuity with what has been achieved in Church as Communion. The bulk of the rest of its reflection is on authority and its structures.
For both Anglicans and Roman Catholics, structures of authority are intended to maintain and nurture the "structures of grace," that is, the constituent elements of communion. The Windsor Report provides a brief account of the efforts Anglicans have made to find more effective ways of maintaining koinonia in times of change. Citing the example of the ordination of women, the Windsor Report shows how this has been worked out in practice through existing and emerging structures and practices. Roman Catholics, too, especially since Vatican II, have been attempting to develop structures of learning to assist the structures of teaching: national and regional episcopal conferences, general assemblies of the Synod of Bishops, and experiments in the greater involvement of laypeople in parochial and diocesan pastoral councils are among the initiatives. (The extent to which these initiatives have been successful is, of course, questionable.)
Both ARCIC I and ARCIC II have made it clear that these structures are interrelated. Church as Communion states: "For all the local churches to be together in communion, the one visible communion which God wills, it is required that all the essential constitutive elements of ecclesial communion are present and mutually recognised in each of them. Thus the visible communion between these churches is complete and their ministers are in communion with each other" (para. 43). The document asserts that the fullness of oversight is entrusted to the episcopate, which has "both collegial and primatial dimensions" that afford the context for "the episcopal ministry of a universal primate . . . as the visible focus of unity" (para. 45).
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