ANGLICAN/ROMAN CATHOLIC INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION (ARCIC)

On March 24, 1966, Archbishop Michael Ramsey of Canterbury and Pope Paul VI issued a Common Declaration in which they set forth their determination to inaugurate between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church "a serious dialogue which, founded on the Gospels and on the ancient common traditions, may lead to the unity in truth for which Christ prayed." Thus, building upon earlier conversations (1960) between Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher and Pope John XXIII, the foundations were laid upon which a new and extensive program of Anglican/Roman Catholic consultations would be built.

An Anglican/Roman Catholic Joint Preparatory Commission began to meet in January of 1967 and issued its "Malta Report" by January 1968. The report contained an extensive list of recommendations to the respective church authorities: preparation of a common declaration of the faith; the issuance of parallel statements on international, national, and local issues; regular joint meetings of bishops; and that a "permanent" international commission be set up to carry forward the work begun in the preparatory phase. This was done, and in January of 1970 the Anglican/Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) held its first session at Windsor, England. Its members, consultants, and secretaries were bishops, priests, and lay persons jointly appointed by the archbishop of Canterbury and the pope to promote and coordinate the restoration of complete communion in faith and sacramental life between the self-governing provinces (churches) constituting the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church. The chairmen were the Most Rev. Henry McAddo, Anglican archbishop of Dublin, and the Rt. Rev. Alan Clark, Catholic bishop of East Anglia. At its initial session ARCIC set as its task the exploration of agreement and disagreement in three areas: 1) the church and the eucharist, 2) the church and the ministry, and 3) the church and authority.

ARCIC continued to meet annually for a ten-day period of shared prayer and research issuing a statement (1971) and an elucidation (1979) on eucharistic doctrine, a statement (1973) and an elucidation (1979) on ministry and ordination, and two statements (1976 and 1981) and an elucidation (1981) on authority in the church. These were collected in a single volume and released by ARCIC under the title The Final Report (1981). Various joint commissions of Anglicans and Catholics around the world and individual church officials and scholars had offered their comments on different statements as they were released, one by one. Some comments were addressed in the three elucidations as ARCIC's work proceeded. Now with all seven items under one title, the work of ARCIC as a whole was assessed. The "Introduction" to The Final Report states that "in producing these statements, we have been concerned, not to evade the difficulties, but rather to avoid the controversial language in which they have often been discussed." To stress the importance of the topics addressed in the report, the introduction concludes: "Full visible communion between our two Churches cannot be achieved without mutual recognition of sacraments and ministry, together with the common acceptance of a universal primacy, at one with the episcopal college in the service of koinonia [communion]." It concludes optimistically: "There are high expectations that significant initiatives will be boldly undertaken to deepen our reconciliation and lead us forward in the quest for the full common to which we have been committed, in obedience to God, from the beginning of our dialogue."

Various national Anglican/Roman Catholic dialogues, Catholic episcopal conferences, and member churches of the Anglican Communion responded to the report. The first church-wide response came in the form of a resolution from the Lambeth Conference (1988). The resolution had to do with whether or not the statements were consonant with Anglican faith and enabled further steps forward; it also referred to responses from the provinces. With regard to eucharist and ministry and ordination, the response was a clear "yes." On authority in the church, the resolution said that the two statements and elucidation gave "real grounds" for believing fuller agreement can be reached "especially on primacy, jurisdiction and infallibility, collegiality, and the role of the laity." Thus from a highly influential point of view in the Anglican Communion, the substantial agreement in the first two areas was seen as sufficient and agreement in the third area was viewed as a good step, but incomplete. ARCIC itself had recognized the speculative condition of some of its work on authority and stated that all differences have not been eliminated. The Official Roman Catholic Response to the Final Report of ARCIC I came three years later, in 1991. Produced in collaboration with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, it was issued by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU). Although the response was laudatory of doctrinal convergence in The Final Report, it called for further clarifications on eucharist and ministry and ordination before substantial agreement could be recognized and additional work on certain aspects of authority in the church for complete agreement on some and even convergence on the others.

In the meantime, a second international commission (ARCIC-II) was appointed, as was announced in the Common Declaration (1982) of Archbishop Robert Runcie of Canterbury and Pope John Paul II. Although the second commission was chaired by two Englishmen, the Rt. Rev. Michael Santer, anglican bishop of Kensington (and later of Birmingham), and the Most Rev. Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Catholic bishop of Arundel and Brighton (later, after his role on ARCIC-II, cardinal and archbishop of Westminister), an effort was made to form a slightly larger commission with wider geographical representation. ARCIC-II issued statements on the doctrine of justification (Salvation and the Church, 1987), the meaning of ecclesial communion (Church as Communion, 1991), and moral teaching (Life in Christ: Morals, Communion, and the Church, 1994).

In 1993, ARCIC-II issued a list of clarifications answering the queries raised in the 1991 response of the Catholic Church to The Final Report. With regard to eucharist, the clarifications addressed: the link of the eucharistic memorial with the once-for-all sacrifice of Calvary, which it makes sacramentally present; the propitiatory nature of the eucharist sacrifice, which can be applied also to the deceased; Christ's substantial and sacramental presence in the eucharistic species of bread and wine; and adoration of Christ in the reserved sacrament. With regard to ministry and ordination, the clarifications also addressed four points: only a validly ordained priest, acting in the person of Christ, can be the minister of the eucharist; the institution of the sacrament of orders, conferring the priesthood, comes from Christ and orders are not a simple ecclesiastical institution; the character of priestly ordination implying configuration to the priesthood of Christ; and apostolic succession in which the unbroken lines of episcopal succession and apostolic teaching stand in causal relationship to each other. In 1994, Cardinal Edward Cassidy (PCPCU President), replying to ARCIC-II's chairmen, wrote that "the said clarifications have indeed thrown new light on the questions concerning eucharist and ministry" in the report and "the agreement reached on eucharist and ministry by ARCIC-I is thus greatly strengthened and no further study would seem to be required at this stage."

The Final Report noted in its elucidation (1979) rapid developments leading to the ordination of women and offered "that the principles upon which its doctrinal agreement rests are not affected by such ordinations; for it [ARCIC] was concerned with the origin and nature of the ordained ministry and not with the question who can and cannot be ordained." A Common Declaration (1989) by Archbishop Runcie and Pope John Paul II recognized that "the admission of women to the ministerial priest-hood in some provinces of the Anglican Communion prevents reconciliation between us even where there is otherwise progress towards agreement in faith on the meaning of the eucharist and the ordained ministry." The Lambeth resolution (1988) mentioned the ordination of women in two places: among the issues, acknowledged with assurance, that ARCIC-II would explore "within an understanding of the church as communion" and imposing serious responsibility on Anglican bishops "to weigh the possible implications of action on this matter for the unity of the Anglican Communion and for the universal Church." A paragraph in the Catholic Church's response (1991) stated that in the view of the Catholic Church "the question of the subject of ordination is linked with the nature of the sacrament of holy orders." Then in its clarifications (1993) ARCIC-II stated that the issue of who can or cannot be ordained "involves far more than the question of ministry" and "raises profound questions of ecclesiology and authority in relation to tradition."

ARCIC-II has also issued The Gift of Authority (1999), also known as "Authority in the Church-III" because the report already had two statements on authority. Because a major Anglican study on the exercise of authority and the structures of communion (The Virginia Report, 1998) was being prepared for the Lambeth Conference (1998), ARCIC-II waited for its completion and presentation to Lambeth before releasing its statement on authority. The Gift of Authority seeks to restate the consensus thus far and to come to consensus on the remaining issues on the exercise of authority. It suggests it has made advances on 11 points of doctrinal agreement, calls attention to significant developments in both communions, names issues facing Anglicans and those facing Catholics, and recommends "that Anglicans be open to and desire a recovery and re-reception under certain conditions of the exercise of universal primacy by the Bishop of Rome" and "that Roman Catholics be open to and desire a re-reception of the exercise of primacy by the bishop of Rome and the offering of such a ministry to the whole Church of God."

Lambeth (1998) recommended ARCIC-II's statements of 1987, 1991, and 1994, and the one to appear later (GA, 1999) for referral "to the provinces for study and response." Already in a Common Declaration (1996), Pope John Paul II and Archbishop George Carey of Canterbury affirmed "the signs of progress provided in the statements of ARCIC-I on the eucharist and on the understanding of ministry and ordination, which have received an authoritative response from both partners of the dialogue." They declared that the statements of ARCICII "require analysis, reflection, and response," and then they referred to "a new situation" caused by the ordination of women as an "obstacle to reconciliation." In view of all these developments over the past 25 years, they suggested that "it may be opportune at this stage in our journey to consult further about how the relationship between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church is to progress." This started a process of church-wide consultation within both communions leading to a special international meeting of Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops (2000), chaired by Archbishop Carey and Cardinal Cassidy, which produced Communion in Mission and an action plan. It asserts that communion between Anglicans and Catholics "is no longer to be viewed in minimal terms," "is even now a rich and life-giving, multifaceted communion," is "closer to the goal of full visible communion than we first dared to believe," and that "a sense of mutual interdependence in the Body of Christ has been reached, in which the churches of the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church are able to bring shared gifts to their joint mission in the world." The plan called for a new high-level working group to "monitor the reception of ARCIC agreements." Appointment of the Anglican–Roman Catholic Working Group was announced in January of 2001 with a first meeting expected to take place late in the same year.

For a new topic, the 1999 meeting included "preliminary discussion of the ecumenical problems surrounding the Virgin Mary," and the 2000 and 2001 meetings referred to the topic as "Mary in the life and doctrine of the Church."

Bibliography: j. w. witmer and j. r. wright, eds., Called to Full Unity (USCCB Publication No. 937; Washington, D.C. 1986), includes documents related to ARCIC up through 1983. j. gros, e. r. elder, and e. k. wondra, eds., Common Witness to the Gospel, (USCCB Publication No. 5-060; Washington, D.C. 1997), includes documents up through 1995. The Gift of Authority (New York 1999). All ARCIC documents have appeared in the PCPCU's Information Service as well as meeting reports and most documents in Origins. c. hill and e. j. yarnold, s. j., eds., Anglicans and Roman Catholics: The Search for Unity (London 1994). w. purdy, The Search for Unity (London 1995). m. richards, "Twenty-five Years of Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue—Where Do We Go from Here?" One in Christ 18 (1992): 126–35.

[j. borelli]