Archbishop Welby: no sacrifice too great to obey Christ’s call to unity
(Vatican Radio) The head of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin
Welby, said he hopes to “produce a few surprises” with Pope Francis in terms of ecumenical
relations between the two churches, but declined to disclose any details.
The
archbishop made the comment in an interview with Vatican Radio’s Philippa Hitchen
at the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, currently underway
in Busan, South Korea. Listen to the full interview:
He also reflected
on the challenges and concessions that need to be made for the sake of Christian unity.
The longer Christians “exist in different church communities around the world,” he
said, “the more our different communities embed their own institutions and put down
roots.”
“Perhaps we need to reimagine what it means to look like the church
and to surrender some of the things that give us our sense of identity in the cause
of Christ,” he said.
The churches need to be sure they are working on the
important doctrinal and dogmatic differences between them “in the context of churches
and ecclesial communities that say no sacrifice is too great to be obedient to the
call of Christ that we may be one,” he said.
Read a transcript from the
interview below:
Q.:This is your first WCC Assembly. How important
do you see the role of the WCC today? Archbishop Welby: It’s my first
experience, so I’m very much here learning. I think the first thing that struck me
is the breadth and scale of the church and I think one of the things that the WCC
does is bring together every point of the church, many of which disagree quite strongly,
but you get a sense of the breadth and the depth and the width of the work of Christ
across the world and that’s extraordinarily impressive.
Q.: The WCC is sometimes
criticized for being a celebration of difference and diversity, and yet you received
loud applause when you talked about the commitment to full, visible, sacramental unity?
Archbishop Welby: I think the longing for the union of Christ’s church
comes from the work of the Holy Spirit rather than from us generating it. I think
it is a gift of the Spirit and that longing is deepening and growing but, as you say,
the diversity of our world is reflected more and more in a universal church and it
becomes harder and harder to overcome the obstacles. The danger is that you end up
in some kind of soup where everything goes mushy. But the other side is that we learn
what it is to love one another in diversity, yet holding to the one Lord Jesus Christ
as the centre of our lives, the one we follow, the one to whom we are disciples.
Q.:
You said recently that most of our disagreements are about power and prestige rather
than dogma or doctrine. What exactly do you mean? Archbishop Welby:
…We exist in different church communities, different ecclesial communities around
the world and the longer that goes on, the more our different communities embed their
own institutions and put down roots. Some of them have been putting down roots for
centuries and that makes it harder and harder for us to say, well, actually, perhaps
we need to reimagine what it means to look like the church and to surrender some of
the things that give us our sense of identity in the cause of Christ. There are very
fundamental and extremely important doctrinal and dogmatic differences that we have
between us and they have to be worked on, as they are with Rome and the Anglicans
with ARCIC, and we take those extremely seriously. It’s absolutely essential that
those are worked on. But we need to make sure we’re working on them in the context
of churches and ecclesial communities that say no sacrifice is too great to be obedient
to the call of Christ that we may be one.
Q.: … Neither you nor Pope
Francis seem remotely interested in power and prestige. Does this mean therefore that
we can expect some kind of surprising healing or reconciliation in the near future? Archbishop
Welby: God has given you, and given us all, a great Pope. And he’s a great Pope
of surprises… and I think people are inspired and uplifted by what they see in Pope
Francis, as I am. I think he’s a wonderful person. Surprises? Yes, I think there’ll
be one or two surprises. We’re hoping to produce a few surprises.
Q.: You
announced a few interesting joint initiatives on that last visit, and you’re due back
again in the spring. Can you give us any hint, any teaser of what we can expect on
this next visit? Archbishop Welby: No, absolutely not!
Q.:
You’ve also visited Japan and Hong Kong here in Asia – how do you see the role of
the minority Christian churches in this region? Archbishop Welby: Christians
are a very small minority in Asia, but there are one or two characteristics of Anglican
churches, one of which is they are bridge churches—they build bridges. Secondly, they
educate, there are 150,000 children in Hong Kong being educated in church schools.
In Japan, the church is profoundly and deeply involved with the communities affected
by the tsunami and Fukushima disasters and are working in beautiful ways in serving
those communities at the very grassroots with the people who others are not reaching
out to, so poor church for the poor and I rejoiced at that.
Q.: Do you
see this WCC theme of justice and peace central to your ministry? Archbishop
Welby: I hope the central theme of my ministry begins with prayer, and my own
engagement with the love of Jesus and our call to be a people of love who serve the
poor – I think all those wind in together. The WCC Assembly theme is central to Christian
ministry but it isn’t the whole of Christian ministry.
Q.: You’ve also
been dealing recently with divisions with your own Anglican communion. You met with
leaders at the second GAFCON encounter of traditionalist Anglican bishops in Kenya.
How concerned are you about the deep differences of vision within the Anglican world? Archbishop
Welby: The trip to Kenya was wonderful. I went principally to express my solidarity
with people and churches in Kenya, following the terrorist attack in Nairobi. It happened
to be the weekend leading into the GAFCON meeting, and I met their leaders and that
was a great privilege. The Anglicans have always conducted their disagreements very
openly, publically, loudly. I rejoice in groups, like GAFCON, with many other across
the church, with lots of different perspectives, which call us in particular directions
and remind us of the breadth and depth of Christian commitment that we need. So, I’m
grateful that they force me back to think and I listen to all of them.
Q.:
Regarding the issue of women bishops, you now have new draft legislation that will
be discussed at the General Synod in November. How is this different from the previous
attempt, which failed so dramatically a year ago? Archbishop Welby: You’ll
have seen the papers. What we’ve got here is a straightforward and simple measure,
which sets out some basic principles of how we operate as a church, reinforced by
an ombudsman scheme, so that people who feel we’re not living by the principles we’ve
set out have a recourse. So, we’ll have to see if the synod also thinks it’s the right
way to go. I do hope, more than optimism.