ecumenism and canon law
The canon law of the church exists to both facilitate and protect our mission and ministry. Recent legislation has attempted to tidy up our constitutional approach to ecumenism.
1. Relationships with Other Churches
Volume II of the Constitution of the Church in Wales lists the canons, promulgated as a result of bill procedure, that establish links between the Church in Wales and other churches through either intercommunion or full communion.
i) Intercommunion
Intercommunion has been established between the Church in Wales and four other churches: the Old Catholics, the Philippine Independent Church, the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church and the Lusitanian Church. This means that each communion recognises the catholicity and independence of the other, that each maintains its own catholicity and independence; and that each communion agrees to admit members of the other communion to participate in the sacraments. Intercommunion does not require from either communion the acceptance of all doctrinal opinion, sacramental devotion, or liturgical practice characteristic of the other, but implies that each believes the other to hold all the essentials of the Christian faith.
ii) Full Communion
Full Communion has been established between the Church in Wales and five other churches: the Church of South India, the Church of North India, the Church of Pakistan; the Mar Thoma Syrian Church and the Church of Bangladesh. Full Communion means that communicant members of the Church in Wales may receive communion in each of the churches mentioned above and vice versa. In addition, subject to the oversight of the Welsh diocesan bishop, the bishops, presbyters and deacons of ‘Full Communion’ Churches may, when visiting the Province of Wales, exercise their ministry in the liturgy of the Church in Wales and vice versa.
2 The Ecumenical Canons 2004
The Governing Body of the Church in Wales in April 2005 approved two new canons to assist the relationships between the Church in Wales and the other Christian traditions in Wales.
The promulgation of the new Canons automatically removed from Volume II of the Constitution the Local Ecumenical Projects Canon of 1991 which had been the cause of some confusion since it attempted to regulate not only the establishment of LEPs but also of other acts of ecumenical co-operation in non LEP parishes.
The first of the Canons To Support Relations with Other Churches (known as the General Canon), provides means of supporting ecumenical activity in all parishes: the first three of flow-charts available for download at the top of the page explains its operation.
The second of these Canons, To Permit the Establishment and Support of Local Ecumenical Projects (known as the LEP canon) provides means of bringing into being and supporting Local Ecumenical Partnerships: the fourth of the charts available for download explains its operation.
The key to understanding the new Canons lies in two basic assumptions:
- The denominational allegiance of the minister leading or presiding at any act of worship determines the denominational ‘branding’ of that act of worship. (In the case of Holy Communion, the name of the presiding minister is to be announced on the preceding Sunday)
- The regulations in the General Canon relate to invitations to minister – who may be invited to do what, and what invitations may be accepted by lay or ordained ministers of the Church in Wales.
In addition, provision is made in the General Canon for the informal sharing of church buildings; more formal sharing must be by an agreement in accordance with The Sharing of Church Buildings Act, 1969 (see p.16).
When ecumenists talk about mutual listening, it is often (isn’t it?) as a preliminary to something else (arguing, negotiating). I just wonder, not at all knowing what this might practically mean, whether we’re not also called to give one another the dignity, as Christian communities, of being ourselves and being valued for just that, in the recognition that no one community or tradition is going to be able to express or embody all the meanings that doctrine and worship can carry for believers.
Rowan Williams