Francis and Welby show that disagreements don't have to be a paralysing
The Tablet
16 September 2016 | by Christopher Lamb | Comments: 0Catholic and Anglican leaders can work together to heal the divisions in each other's churches
When the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, joins
Pope Francis in Assisi next week to mark the 30th anniversary of the
first World Day of Prayer the similarities between the two religious
leaders will be brought into sharp focus. They are both conflict
resolvers who prefer to roll up their sleeves rather than talk theology
and both were surprise choices when selected for their roles, which they
started within a week of each other.
Since then Pope Francis and the
Archbishop of Canterbury have looked for common causes to work on, such
as tackling human slavery. All this will be on the agenda when the pair
come together for two successive meetings in the coming weeks.
But what is likely to be at the forefront
of their encounters is how denominations can work together to resolve
global conflicts while helping one another heal divisions in their own
churches.
The first meeting between them is next Tuesday at a prayer gathering for religious leaders in Assisi.
The Pope and the Archbishop will take part in discussions about global
conflicts, have lunch with victims of war and sign an appeal for peace. It
marks 30 years since John Paul II famously brought 160 religious
representatives together to fast and pray for a colourful event where
then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, chatted with the Dalai
Lama while Muslim prayer mats were laid out next to a Zoroastrian sacred
fire.
This infuriated conservatives but was a
bold statement on religions working together and started a tradition
that continues to this day (although not on such a grand scale as in
1986).
Next Tuesday’s event will be focussed on
conflict resolution something both Archbishop Welby and Pope Francis are
passionate about and are willing to take risks over: last year Francis
ignored security advice and flew into a war zone in order to assist
peace efforts in Central African Republic while Welby has negotiated
with Al-Qaeda operatives and was captured by rebel forces in Nigeria
while on a mercy mission.
But it’s not just war-torn countries that
require the Pope and the Archbishop’s mediatory skills: there are
growing internal disputes within their respective churches over
Christian teaching on sex. For the Anglican
Communion the row is over same-sex relationships and gay bishops, with
Welby just about managing to avert a schism during a meeting of Primates
in Canterbury last year.
While the situation is less serious for
the Catholic Church, Pope Francis faced opposition from senior cardinals
during two synod meetings in Rome due to his plans to offer communion
to divorced and remarried Catholics. And the rows continue to rumble
on. This question of maintaining unity despite divisions are likely to be a theme of the Archbishop Welby’s 5-6 October visit to Rome where he will have a private meeting with the Pope.
Joining the archbishop will be 17
Anglican primates from across the world who will also meet Francis
before spending time in prayer with Welby at the tomb of St Peter,
located underneath St Peter’s Basilica. While
Francis’ meeting with the primates is a sign of Christian unity it also
demonstrates his concern for maintaining the Anglican communion: this
Pope sees divisions in one Church as having a negative impact on
Catholicism. And there is nothing he is more worried about than a schism
within his own.
The Pope’s concern for Anglican unity was
demonstrated earlier this year by sending the crosier of St Augustine
of Canterbury to a landmark gathering of primates in Canterbury
Cathedral earlier this year. The ivory-headed
hooked staff, belonging to the first Archbishop of Canterbury, was put
on display in the cathedral and is said to have had a calming effect on
those unhappy prelates who had arrived at the meeting with the intention
of leaving soon after it began. After spending some time praying in
front of the crosier they opted for a different course.
It will, however, take more than kind
gestures by the Pope to stop Anglicans from falling out. So far
Archbishop Welby has been able to keep the peace with sanctions for the
American branch of Anglicanism which officially recognises gay marriage:
this is something conservatives, particularly in Africa and Asia, are
appalled by. At the same time the archbishop has
apologised to gay people for the hurt caused to them by the Church and
had no difficulty when Bishop Nicholas Chamberlain became the first
member of the Church of England hierarchy to say he was gay and in a
long-term - albeit celibate - relationship.
For Catholic and Anglican dialogue the
problem is not so much gay people but women, with the Vatican deeply
opposed to female ordination which is the major stumbling block to full,
visible unity between the churches. Nevertheless,
Francis might have opened a crack in the door by his decision to set up
a commission to look at the ordination of women as deacons, and those
in the Anglican church with long memories will recall how this was the
first step to female priestly ordination in their communion. Yet if the
Pope agrees to ordaining women as deacons then he will face yet more
criticisms from the traditionally minded.
Welby’s visit to Rome next month will be a
powerful demonstration of Anglican and Catholics working together. At a
vespers service bishops from the two churches “couple-up” into
seventeen pairings and will be sent out on a joint mission by the Pope
and the Archbishop.
This move - symbolic of the Francis and Welby approach - is a sign disagreements don’t have to be paralysing. This
was something Archbishop Welby pointed out ahead of the Anglican
primates gathering this year, when he said being reconciled was not the
same as everyone complying with the same position.
“Reconciliation doesn’t always mean
agreement,” he explained. “In fact it very seldom does. It means finding
ways of disagreeing well.”
And that’s a message both Catholics and Anglicans can agree on.
Christopher Lamb is The Tablet's correspondent in Rome
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