Let me say first of all how very grateful I am for the opportunity to be with you this morning to react together to this announcement from Rome.
The fact that we’re able to do this response together as we’ve done this morning in itself tells a story…that is, that the issues and the questions that face any one Christian Church at the moment face all of us and we don’t believe that there’s anything to be gained by trying to score points at each others’ expense or to work separately when we can work together.
So the first thing I’d want to say about this is that, in a very important sense, it does not disrupt business as usual in the relations between our communions.
The work done by the international commission, the ARCIC commission, over many years and the work also done more recently in the International Commission on Unity and Mission, between our churches, that work is, as Cardinal Cormac loves to say, in the bank, it is solidly there as a basis for our continuing relationships. And as we speak, the preparations are going forward for the further informal talks around the next round of ARCIC discussions. So that is if you like a main stream which continues.
What is to me very interesting about the constitution proposed and the ideas behind it is that it is itself also another kind of product of our years of conversation, prayer together. The recognition as Archbishop Vincent has already said, that there are elements of the Anglican heritage that are not at all problematic for the Roman Catholic Church, there is a recognition there of something profoundly in common and in that sense I think this is something to be grateful for.
So I think it’s very important for us in the Anglican communion to be grateful for what has been achieved, to recognise that there is a solid common heritage established, that the willingness to continue in our relations and negotiations is unchanged and then to admit that, as the Archbishoip has hinted that we don't know exactly what this is going to look like in any specific context, least of all in England and Wales.
I’ve been aware for a few years that there have been some groups approaching the Holy See to discuss the possibilities of what might roughly be called “group reunion”. Prominent among those for example has been the Traditional Anglican Communion, a network of mostly former Anglicans holding to a very traditional pattern of Anglican Faith and Worship – I know they’ve been in contact. I know there have been some groups in the United States of America, similarly who made contact, and I know of course that there are some within the Anglican communion, as it now is, who have been – as you might put it – looking at their options should the Anglican communion take any further steps which they would regard as problematic. It’s no secret that in this country the ordination of women as bishops is one of those test issues. However, I don’t think that this constitution should be seen as, in any sense, a commentary on Anglican problems offered by the Vatican. It is, as has been said, a response to this range of requests and inquiries from a very very broad variety of people, either Anglicans or of Anglican heritage, as you might say. And in that sense it has no negative impact on the relation of the Communion as a whole, to the Roman Catholic Church as a whole. And, as I’ve said in the letter that I’m sending to my fellow Bishops and fellow Primates in the Anglican Communion this morning, naturally we will be praying for strength and discernment for those who want, or might want, to avail themselves of this offer, and for the outworking of this in peace and the honour of God. And I think that is the response that we are bound to make as fellow Christians to those pursuing their journey here.
Apart from that, I’d just like to reiterate that the continuing conversation goes on at the moment. I mentioned the preparations looking forward to the possible third round of ARCIC. I shall be visiting Rome before Christmas, and that’s routine annual visit to touch base with a number of colleagues and friends in Rome and also to take part in a conference on ecumenism, as it happens. So, in that sense, business as usual is quite an important point to make this morning.