The Church: Towards A Common Vision

World Council of Churches Faith and Order Paper no.214

A report from the Standing Doctrinal Commission, The Church in Wales

The Background to the Document

  1. In 2013, the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches (WCC) published The Church: Towards a Common Vision (hereafter TCV).[1] The context of this document is important, and worth outlining in our first two paragraphs, before we move to our response to the document. The WCC had its origins,inter alia,in the Faith and Order Movement. Dame Mary Tanner, a distinguished Anglican theologian, international ecumenist, and for many years Moderator of the Faith and Order Commission of the WCC, wrote a paper in 1995 to introduce younger theologians to the work of Faith and Order. She said that:

It took from 1910 to 1927 to set up the first World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne, Switzerland. In those years 70 commissions in 40 countries worked to prepare the meeting. Protestants, Anglicans and Orthodox were in the thick of it together. During the preparatory period the purpose of the meeting was defined as `comparative ecclesiology' with no attempt to commit any participating church and no direct promotion of unity schemes: such powers were clearly recognised as belonging to the churches themselves...It was this first meeting of the expanding Faith and Order Movement in Lausanne 1927 with its high expectations, together with the belief that the goal of visible unity really was attainable, that outlined an agenda that has remained at the heart of faith and order work ever since: the call for unity; the nature of the Church; the common confession of the faith; the ministry and sacraments. This agenda has been focused since Lausanne in a series of World Conferences on Faith and Order: Edinburgh 1937; Lund 1952; Montreal 1963 and Santiago de Compostela, 1993.[2]

  1. This is the context of the 2013 document, TCV. It is important to be aware that there is over a century of ecumenical dialogue preceding the publication of TCV. The history can be briefly given here. From 1910 to 1927 there was the preparatory courtship, which resulted in the setting up of the Faith and Order Movement. Twenty years later, and after another world war, Faith and Order merged with another movement, Life and Work, to create the World Council of Churches in 1948. In the 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church, after the change in attitude towards other churches at Vatican II, began a series of ecumenical dialogues, which are still ongoing. Although it did not become a member of the WCC, its representatives are members of the Faith and Order Commission of the WCC. Two great reports have been issued by the Faith and OrderCommission, and together they frame all bilateral dialogues, and all conversations today about the possibility of ecumenism. One is the 1982 document, Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, which was agreed in Lima, Peru, and which is known as ‘the Lima text’, or simply as ‘BEM’. The second document is this one, The Church. It is, quite simply, that important a document.
  2. The Introduction describes it as ‘a convergence text, that is, a text which, while not expressing full consensus on all the issues considered, is much more than simply an instrument to stimulate further study.’ It is only the second such document produced by the Commission, the first being as noted above:Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, published in 1982. As with BEM, the Commission is seeking an official response from member Churches, to gauge how far the document takes us towards the goal of theological agreement. The deadline for such responses is the end of 2015. That is why the bishops of the Church in Wales have asked the Standing Doctrinal Commission to comment on the document.

The Questions Asked of Each Church by the Document

  1. The Introduction to TCVasked for official responses to be submitted ‘in the light of’ five specific questions (p.3):

i) To what extent does this text reflect the ecclesiological understanding of your church?

ii) To what extent does this text offer a basis for growth in unity among the churches?

iii) What adaptations or renewal in the life of your church does this statement challenge your church to work for?

iv) How far is your church able to form closer relationships in life and mission with those churches which can acknowledge in a positive way the account of the Church described in this statement?

v) What aspects of the life of the Church could call for further discussion and what advice could your church offer for the ongoing work by Faith and Order in the area of ecclesiology?

  1. Our response will be in two parts. First, we will comment on these five questions, as we have been asked to do. Secondly, we attach a paper by a member of the Commission on the topic of the covenant with Israel, and the issue of anti-Semitism, which we discuss in our paragraph 18, under the heading of ‘areasfor further study.’ Paragraph 25 of our response raises the issues briefly, which are then elaborated in the paper by Dr Patmore.

(i) To what extent does this text reflect the ecclesiological understanding of your church?

  1. On the first question, the Church in Wales certainly recognises its own understanding in this text. The prefatory note to the Constitution, drawn up in 1920 after ‘the separation of the Welsh dioceses from the Church of England in 1920’,[3] acknowledges as its supreme authority:‘The Holy Scriptures as interpreted in the Catholic Creeds and the historic Anglican formularies, that is, the Thirty Nine articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordering of Bishops, Priests and deacons as published in 1662.’[4] Clergy when taking office swear allegiance to these authorities, and the new Ordinal of 2004 also affirms ‘the Holy Scriptures as containing all things necessary for salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.’[5] In paragraph 45 of TCV we would want to affirm that ‘ordained ministry stands in a special relationship with the unique priesthood of Christ’, and that the sacrament of ordination is one that gives individuals particular priestly functions. In this we echo The Anglican- Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) reportMinistry and Ordination[6]. We return to this issue in paragraph 15 of our response when we discuss Apostolic Succession.

The Living Tradition

  1. We spent much time reflecting on the phrase ‘living tradition’, and welcome the use of this term in paragraphs 11 and 38. The term has been used for some while in Orthodox theology, e.g. by Vladimir Lossky, where tradition is seen as the life of the Holy Spirit in the church. It was also used by Yves Congar in Tradition and Traditions, and was of influence on the Vatican II text Dei Verbum.[7]It was additionally used at the 1963 Faith and Order meeting in Montreal. The term thus finds resonances with the pneumatological emphasis of TCV.
  2. The Church in Wales has a deep sense of its own tradition as something which lives and carries forward the living faith of the saints, and especially those of Wales of every age, and is present in the church today. Such attentiveness to tradition is itself longstanding. This can be seen, for example, in Bishop Richard Davies’ Epistol at y Cembru (Epistle to the Welsh), which was included as an introduction to the first Welsh translation of the New Testament in 1567. In this, Bishop Davies taught that the Christian faith had reached the Welsh directly through the hand of Joseph of Arimathea, and he further argued that the Gospel had been preserved in its purity by the Old Britons and thus escaped the influence of Rome. Notwithstanding issues of historical accuracy, his objective in his Epistle is clear: to convince the Welsh that the new reformed faith that arrived in Wales on the crest of the Protestant Reformation was not a new foreign idea, but rather a reconnection to their Celtic Augustinian past. The idea of a living tradition was central to this argument. Similar arguments were used by Bishop Thomas Burgess in the early nineteenth century on the importance of Celtic Christianity as a tradition still alive in the Welsh church. We may also look to the translation of the Bible into Welsh in 1588 by Bishop William Morgan, and subsequent translations after this, as vital expressions of the ‘the living tradition’ (paragraph 11): the Holy Spirit guiding the followers of Jesus as they strive to be faithful to the Gospel.
  3. The disestablishment of the Church in Wales in 1920 also gave the Church in Wales a renewed sense of a living tradition, looking back to the saints who first established Christianity in Wales, but also looking forward as an authentic expression of Anglicanism in Wales. The importance of the Welsh language is central. Paragraph 38 speaks of the faith being confessed ‘in worship, life, service and mission.’ The Church in Wales therefore welcomes the emphasis in paragraph 11 on the interpretation of Scripture. It affirms that the role of tradition in interpreting Scripture, while always seeking to be faithful to biblical teaching, has produced ‘an additional wealth of ecclesiological insights over the course of history.’ This understanding of Scripture, tradition, and biblical interpretation bears closely on the church’s on- going relationship to the contemporary culture of which it is a part, and which it witnesses to in the name of Christ. This relationship is one which is deeply important in the life of the Church in Wales, and the teaching office of its bishops. It is a matter of seeking ‘to guide later followers of Jesus as they strive to be faithful to the Gospel’ (Paragraph 11).

Communion, Mission and Unity

  1. We also very much welcome the emphasis on koinonia as constitutive of much recent ecumenical discussions, for example as in its centrality to the reports of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC). The importance of communion has been prominent in many recent Anglican documents, such as the Windsor report, and we welcome the discussion in paragraphs 28-30 on ‘communion in unity and diversity.’ We will comment later in our response on the issue of legitimate diversity, but we would stress that the Church in Wales has been deeply involved in contributing to the life and unity of the Anglican Communion, and to the life of the World Council of Churches.
  2. One point which we would raise is that in The Church there is a strong emphasis on the term koinonia, and much less emphasis on the term ‘covenant’. This term has been central to other Welsh ecclesial traditions, such as the non-conformist churches.[8] It is also fundamental to the 1975 Enfys Covenant, made by the Church in Wales, the Committee of the Covenanted Baptist Churches in Wales, The Methodist Church, The Presbyterian Church in Wales, and the United Reformed Church.[9] We wonder whether the use of the word ‘plan’ (paragraph 58) strikes a note of being rather static, and lacks a certain dynamism, which is central to the contemporary theological understanding both of koinonia and covenant. Nevertheless, we affirm the centrality of the emphasis on unity, especially with its strong relationship to the missionary nature of the Church.
  3. The Church in Wales sees itself as autocephalous, and therefore as a self-governing church within the Anglican Communion. This has had important implications in recent years in debates on the proposed Anglican Covenant, when the Church in Wales felt that it was important that the integrity of its governance was preserved, while seeking to participate fully in the life of the Anglican Communion. There is much inTCV which offers itself as a rich resource for further reflection on the tension between autonomy and interdependence, such as paragraph 53 on synodality and conciliarity. The point is well made in paragraph 53 that the ‘ quality of synodality or conciliarity reflects the mystery of the Trinitarian life of God, and the structures of the Church express this quality so as to actualize the community’s life as a communion.’ The sometimes fractious life of the Anglican Communion in recent decades makes this comment a very searching one for Anglicans.

The place of the Virgin Mary

  1. The Marian discussion in paragraph 15 would not be recognised by many congregations within our Church. However the medieval heritage of the Church in Wales is strong, and there was a deep devotion to Mary at that time. Some congregations would still very much reflect that emphasis today. The discussion in paragraph 15 is balanced and helpful, building on the ARCIC statement Mary Grace and Hope in Christ, andthe report from the Groupe de Dombes. However we were surprised by the use of the term Theotokos in brackets after the reference to ‘Mary, the Mother of God’ in this paragraph, and suggest a more neutral term could have been found.

(ii) To what extent does this text offer a basis for growth in unity among the churches?

  1. TCV offers a basis for growth in unity and the importance of retaining a ‘common vision’, while every church in Wales struggles with issues of management and preventing decline, is of central importance. The early movement to closer unity in Wales, including the Enfys covenant, was deeply inspired by the work of both the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches(described in the first page of this submission) and the British Council of Churches.[10]As noted above in paragraph 10 of our response, the Church in Wales entered into a Covenant for Union in 1975 (later named Enfys) which brought together the Church in Wales, the Presbyterian Church in Wales, the Methodist Church (in Wales) and the United Reformed Church of England and Wales. In 1977 certain Baptist Churches came into the covenant. Since 2005, this Covenant for Union – formerly called Enfys – has now found a new home within Cytun and is calledThe Covenanted Churches within Cytun. It was this body which produced The Gathering.
  2. Ecumenism needs to be taken forward in the very different world of the twenty-first century in a new way. This document offers a fresh language through which an understanding of vision and hope might inspire the ecumenical activity of the Church in Wales. Our hope is that as the early work of the World Council of Churches produced the Enfys Covenant, so TCV may inspire further activity in Wales, which includes but goes beyond The Gathering. We suggest that all the churches in Wales could arrange study groups on this document, such as Lent Groups, as a way of finding inspiration and hope for a rekindling of the ecumenical quest within Wales.
  3. The Church in Wales is already deeply involved in the follow-up to TheGathering,[11] and is an active member of Cytun at the congregational, regional and national level, as well as participating in the umbrella body Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. The Gathering is a proposal by the Commission of the Covenanted Churches in Wales to bring about the reconciliation of ministries, and to work for a united church in Wales. The launch of The Gathering in Aberystwyth in 2012 was attended by Olav Tveit, the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches. We can certainly affirm this text as a valued and useful contribution to our search for greater unity among the churches.

Apostolic Succession

  1. Anglicans will have a particular concern for the three-fold order of the ordained ministry in the Church. In our response to The Gathering, we said:

Anglicans will want to affirm the three-fold nature of ministry, and to argue that ordained ministry is in continuity with a pre-existing tradition given by the Spirit, which establishes the authority and validity of its orders. Any pragmatic solution would put at risk the nature of Anglican ministry, and the unity of the Body of Christ. However what is of great value in The Gathering is precisely the way in which the act of reconciliation of ministries…can be seen as an enriching of Anglican order.

  1. Therefore our approach to TCVwould be the same as this response to The Gathering. Paragraph 47 ofTCV refers to both the historic episcopate and the apostolic succession of ordained ministry. The Church in Wales would want to affirm the importance of historic episcopal succession, while noting that the Church in Wales agreed to the Porvoo Common Statement and Declaration in 1992, with episcopal churches which have not always had continuity in episcopal succession. Apostolic succession as the continuity of episcopacy with the laying on of hands has always been valued for Anglicans not simply for its own sake but as a sign of the fullness of the church. Indeed, there have been a series of ecumenical reports from the Anglican Communion, such as the1987 Niagara Report between Anglicans and Lutherans[12], or the 1997 VirginiaReport,whichhave both seen apostolicity in much broader terms than simply the laying on of hands. The Virginia Report , at paragraph 4: 27,said :

The apostolicity of a particular church is measured by its consonance with the living elements of apostolic succession and unity: baptism and Eucharist, the Nicene and Apostles' creeds, the ordered ministry and the canon of Scripture. These living elements of apostolic succession serve the authentic succession of the gospel and serve to keep the various levels of the Church in a communion of truth and life.