The Gift of Authority

Ecumenical Review, The, Jan, 2000 by Michael Root

The Final Report had already affirmed the complementary functions of conciliarity and primacy within episcope (Auth I [subsections] 19-23), concluding that both conciliarity and primacy would need to be realized at the universal level:

   The only see which makes any claim to universal primacy and which has
   exercised and still exercises such episcope is the see of Rome, the city
   where Peter and Paul died. It seems appropriate that in any future union a
   universal primacy such as has been described should be held by that see
   (Auth I [sections] 23; cp. Auth II [sections] 9).(16)

GA notes that this primatial ministry includes "a specific ministry concerning the discernment of truth as an expression of universal primacy". Such teaching "may, however, express only the faith of the church" and is always "pronounced within the college of those who exercise episcope ... When the faith is articulated in this way, the bishop of Rome proclaims the faith of the local churches. It is thus the wholly reliable teaching of the whole church that is operative in the judgment of the universal primate" (GA [sections] 47).

This theological argument forms the context for the specific suggestions included in the last section of GA, "Steps towards Visible Unity". The commission notes issues that will need to be faced by Anglicans (e.g., "Is the communion also open to the acceptance of instruments of oversight which would allow decisions to be reached that in certain circumstances would bind the whole church?"; [sections] 56) and by Catholics (e.g., "Is there at all levels effective participation of clergy as well as lay people in emerging synodal bodies?"; [sections] 57). It calls for a renewed collegiality between Catholic and Anglican bishops. Finally, it states that its work "has resulted in sufficient agreement on universal primacy as a gift to be shared for us to propose that such a primacy could be offered and received even before our churches are in full communion" ([sections] 60). Such a primacy could "even now" uphold diversity, while exercising leadership in the world and in both communions. It could address both communions "in a prophetic way" and "might gather the churches in various ways for consultation and discussion" ([subsections] 60f.).

Challenges and issues

From even so brief a description, the far-reaching issues GA raises are evident. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold of the Episcopal Church USA, present Anglican co-chair of ARCIC, has stated that GA "calls for careful and prolonged study and discussion rather than immediate reaction and response".(17) The analysis that follows is intended as a contribution to such study and discussion. It will focus on four interrelated themes where I believe discussion can fruitfully be taken up. The intent is less to critique GA than to indicate some areas where I believe the discussion needs to be pressed.

1. The faith of the individual and the faith of the church

The natural tendency to focus on the controversial issues of infallibility and primacy should not divert attention from the more comprehensive discussion in GA of the complex inter-relation of the faith of the individual Christian and the faith of the church. The double Amen theme which expresses this inter-relation in GA is not just rhetorical ornamentation, but an important theological assertion which might prove fruitful in wider ecumenical discussions.