Content provided in partnership with
Windsor Report and Ecumenical Dialogue, The
Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2005 by Flynn, Kevin
We need to ask, too, whether those who are elected as bishops have adequate formation in discerning and articulating the authentic faith. The Windsor Report makes a number of critical statements about the academic study of Scripture (including the entirely justified statement in paragraph 58 that teaching the Scriptures authoritatively cannot be left to academic researchers alone). Some form of the academy, however, remains the place where candidates for presbyteral ordination receive their formation. The Windsor Report gives no indication of how that formation develops into the kind of discernment and articulation necessary for the episcopal office.
- Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »
What else helpful might we learn from the experience of ecumenical dialogue? Several things suggest themselves. Though it may seem obvious, the most important is the maintenance of a respectful attitude of openhearted listening. People on all sides of the issues before us need to try to attend to the deep concerns of those who differ from them, despite the controversial language in which those concerns may be expressed.
Related to this is the spiritual quality of detachment that is so necessary in dialogue. That is, we all must be prepared not only to admit that we may be wrong even about our most passionately held convictions, but we must be prepared to say our piece and work to the ends which we believe to be God's will, but without becoming personally attached to whether our efforts will succeed.
Pope John Paul II referred to ecumenical dialogue as "an exchange of gifts."10 Can Anglicans of opposing views discern gifts to be received from one another?
Finally, the Windsor Report alludes rather briefly in paragraph 7 to the way in which the liturgical life of Anglicans has sustained the life of the communion. The Report points out that there is confusion among many Anglicans about the extent to which communion exists among themselves. Does our impaired communion mean that we cannot receive the eucharist in one another's churches? Once again, experience from ecumenical dialogue is instructive here. Meetings of the Canadian Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue are always set within a context of prayer. This context provides the basis for the emergence of relationships of trust and friendship among dialogue partners. The context of prayer also includes the celebration of the eucharist, with an Anglican presiding at one meeting, a Roman Catholic at the next. Although we do not partake of one another's eucharist, preferring to abide by the discipline of our churches and to maintain before us the painful reality of the scandal of our division, we find the experience to be one of significant communion nonetheless. In ecumenical dialogue we can recognize the legitimacy of one another's presidency and rejoice in such communion as we do enjoy. If we can attend a celebration of the eucharist with a Roman Catholic presider, we can surely attend one with an Anglican presider even if, in conscience, we are unable to receive communion. We should still be able to discern in the liturgy these features of communion, these marks of the church:
Find Research Guides for:
Find Featured Titles for: Arts
Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »