The Gathering

Executive Summary of the report from the Standing Doctrinal Commission.

Overall Judgement

  • “The proposals are a time of opportunity, and an invitation to take risks. The inherited structures of all churches in Wales are in our view both contingent and changeable, although Anglicans would always wish to assert the importance of the three- fold ministry in their ecclesiology.”
  • “It is also the case that there is much duplication both of structures, and of buildings, which could be pruned. However the experience of recent decades is that local experiments need facilitation from higher structures in order to flourish. We do not see the proposals as establishing a culture of uniformity, but rather affirming and enabling a variety of Christian traditions to flourish.”

The Bishop in Synod

  • With reference to Pastoral Oversight(a report from The Gathering), we “applaud(s) the affirmation of the threefold ministry in 10.1.2, and the model of the bishop-in-council at 9.1.3 and 9.3 is also consonant with Anglican ecclesiology in recent decades. .... We affirm paragraph 10 as being consistent both with the (Porvoo) statement and with an Anglican understanding of apostolic succession. Anglicans will want to affirm the centrality of ordination to any celebration of the Eucharist, which is not always the practice in some non-conformist churches.”
  • “It is surprising in Annex One of the Pastoral Oversight proposals on the role of a bishop in a united church that the issue of appointing and licensing clergy is not mentioned. This is an integral part of episcopal jurisdiction, even if such appointments can be delegated to other bodies, and it would be helpful to have further discussion on this sensitive point.”Further, the place of the episcopate in a united Governing Body (paragraph 5.2) is important. We would look for a system of voting by houses.

Reconciliation of ministry, and not re -ordination.

  • Pastoral Oversight paragraph 11.4. If “all ministers agree to the laying on of hands by at least one Anglican bishop and at least one other bishop representing the other traditions within the Church Uniting in Wales”, then it must be seen not as “an episcopal ordination but as a step forward to full covenanted ministry.” What matters here is the future-looking orientation of the report. In Acts 20:28, which is a crucial passage in the New Testament on ministry (presbyteros and episcopos in verses 17 and 28), the context is Paul’s charge to the elders at Ephesus for their future ministry. As Paul departs from Ephesus for the final time, he gives authority to the elders for their future work. The current leadership is not departing but it is being enhanced by something richer, for the sake of future (united) ministry.
  • Anglicans will want to affirm the centrality of ordination to any celebration of the Eucharist, which is not always the practice in some non-conformist churches.
  • In the Church Governance report, we welcome paragraph 3.3.3 on the establishment of nine jurisdictions, and we understand the use of appropriate terminology. However, although each jurisdiction may continue their existing ecclesiastical polity in the short term, this should not continue for too long.