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AN ANGLICANMETHODIST COVENANT

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Title: AN ANGLICANMETHODIST COVENANT


1
AN ANGLICAN-METHODIST COVENANT
2
The Common Statement
  • Charts issues concerning unity in faith,
    ministry and oversight
  • Proposes a new relationship between the Methodist
    Church of Great Britain and the Church of England

3
The formal conversations
  • Seeking visible unity by stages
  • Building on existing convergence and co-operation
  • Mutually affirming each others churches
  • Seeking a stepping stone to the next stage
  • Releasing energy for mission
  • Using the language of covenant

4
We share a common history
  • We each have myths about the other
  • We must challenge our own stereotypes
  • To tell the common story of God at work in both
    churches

5
The Methodist Church in Great Britain believes
it is part of the Holy Catholic Church, called by
God for mission and service
  • A community of over a million people
  • In England 300,000 active members
  • 6,000 local churches
  • 600 circuits
  • 33 districts
  • Ministry of Circuit Superintendents and District
    Chairs
  • 2,000 active ministers
  • 100 deacons
  • 10,000 local preachers
  • The World Methodist Council

6
The Church of England
  • Two provinces each with their archbishop
  • 44 dioceses each with their bishops and
    cathedrals
  • a million Sunday worshippers
  • 1,200,000 on Church Electoral rolls
  • 16,000 parish churches
  • 9,000 stipendiary clergy
  • 10,000 Readers
  • The Anglican Communion

7
Our aim is NOTto put the clock backto gloss
over differences andto construct a monochrome
unity.
  • It IS
  • to harvest our diversity
  • to share our treasures and
  • to remedy our shortcomings,
  • so that we may enjoy together
  • what we believe God has given our churches
  • and still holds in store for us.

8
The formal conversations
  • Were given a specific, deliverable mandate
  • 11 Church of England participants
  • 12 Methodist Church participants
  • Five observer-participants from four other
    churches
  • Drew upon the work of Releasing Energy
  • Went in parallel with the tri-lateral informal
    conversations with the United Reformed Church

9
We share in Gods mission
  • Gods purpose is to draw redeemed humanity and
    the created order together into communion through
    Christ
  • The Church contradicts its own nature and calling
    when its members are unable to live together in a
    reconciled fellowship
  • Anglicans and Methodists share a conviction that
    unity and mission belong together

10
Our growth towards full, visible unity is based
in
  • Scripture and the Creeds
  • Church of England formularies and other doctrinal
    statements
  • Methodist doctrinal standards
  • Reason and experience
  • A common expression of faith
  • But there are two areas of doctrinal difference
  • The question of freewill or election
  • The doctrine of Christian perfection

11
Sharing one baptism and one eucharist a vital
dimension of full, visible unity
  • We already recognise each others baptisms
  • We already welcome each others communicants to
    the Eucharist.
  • We share ecumenical convergence and common
    practice in baptism
  • We basically agree about confirmation but express
    it differently
  • We agree that baptism is fundamental to
    membership
  • We have similar liturgies of the Eucharist but
    some differences of practice

12
A common ministry of word and sacrament
  • All ministry is rooted in baptism
  • All ministry is the ministry of Christ himself
  • The diaconate differences of understanding and
    practice
  • The presbyterate pastoral, preaching, teaching
    and sacramental ministry

13
A priest in the Church of England is
a person called and ordained to the same ministry
of word and sacrament as is exercised by
ministers in Methodism. We believe that there is
a common understanding of the presbyterate and
that this provides a sound foundation for the
eventual interchangeability of presbyteral
ministries.
14
Convergence and unresolved issues
  • There is theological convergence on so many
    essential things. Faith and vision are what are
    chiefly needed now.
  • There are unresolved issues about
  • the ministry of women at every level and
  • presidency at the Eucharist for those not
    ordained to the presbyterate

15
A common ministry of oversight
  • A united pastoral oversight
  • Leading the Church in mission
  • Different patterns of oversight in our two
    churches
  • Personal episcope in both churches is exercised
    in a collegial and communal context

16
We make this Covenant
  • From all we have in common
  • Making affirmations
  • Making commitments
  • With penitence for our past divisions
  • With thanksgiving and joy for our convergence in
    faith and collaboration in mission

17
We affirm one anothers churches as
  • Having ministries from Christ and the Holy Spirit
  • Embodying the conciliar, connexional nature of
    the Church and exercising episcope in various
    forms
  • Sharing a basis for agreement about episcopal
    oversight
  • Belonging to the One, Holy, Catholic and
    Apostolic Church
  • Authentically preaching the Word of God
  • Duly administering the sacraments of Baptism and
    the Eucharist
  • Confessing the historic creeds
  • Having ordained and lay ministries which are
    instruments of Gods grace

18
We commit ourselves to
  • Overcoming remaining obstacles to unity
  • Realising our common life and mission
  • Continuing to welcome each other to our churches
  • Encouraging eucharistic sharing
  • Listening and taking account of each others
    concerns
  • Developing further structures on the way to a
    fully united ministry of oversight

19
The report makes recommendations to
  • The General Synod of the Church of England
  • The Methodist Conference

20
The recommendations are
  • Study and response in our two churches
  • Study and comment by our fellow Methodists and
    Anglicans in these islands and by our partner
    churches, especially the URC, and in the
    ecumenical instruments
  • A small joint group to monitor these developments

21
And after the study and responses...
  • Recommendation that the governing bodies of the
    Churches enter into the Covenant on the basis of
    the Common Statement
  • Working out the commitments through a Joint
    Implementation Commission
  • Priority to the question of the
    interchangeability of ministries

22
The heart of ecumenism is renewal we need to
dwell far less upon our ecclesiastical structures
and far more upon what we can do together as
Christians, learning from one another across the
denominational borders, in the deepening of
spirituality, in the exploring of theological
depth, in evangelism together and in together
saying something and doing something towards the
secular community beyond the Churchs
frontier.Archbishop Michael Ramsey to the
General Synod 1972
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