The third phase of ARCIC, or Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, started
up on Tuesday at the monastery of Bose in northern Italy.
Nestled in the foothills
of the Alps, the monastery, founded on the closing day of the Second Vatican Council
in December 1965, is a haven of peaceful reflection and prayer, but also a place of
important ecumenical encounters. Within its secluded walls, the two teams of Catholic
and Anglican experts are gathered from May 17th to 27th focusing
on the theme ‘Church as Communion – local and universal.’ The discussions will look
back at achievements of the previous ARCIC,dialogues and explore pressing ethical
issues that are challenging the teaching of both Churches.
To find out more,
Philippa Hitchen spoke to the two co-secretaries of the meeting - Msgr. Mark Langham
of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and Alyson Barnett-Cowan, head of the
Unity, Faith and Order office of the Anglican Communion....
Listen:
"It's a theme
that arose out of the discussions of the Holy Father and Archbishop Rowan Williams
when they met in Rome and very much relates to issues that are affecting the Anglican
Commuion at the moment.....
We've always said that the path of traditional
ecumenical dialogue is different from that of individual or group conversion - the
Second Vatican Council made that clear in its document on ecumenism - so we don't
see our work lying within that framework of the Ordinariate."
"I think expectations
are quite high, because there's been a lot of talk over the past year about Anglican-Catholic
relations in the meda and this is a chance for the official theological dialogue to
get to work on the important questions that are between us at the moment.
We're
not afraid of sharing with Roman Catholics the fact that there are lively and divisive
questions among us....."