Cardinal Ivan Dias was not referring to any particular church when he criticized ecclesial communities “suffering from spiritual Alzheimer’s” the Anglican Communion’s top negotiator with the Vatican said yesterday, but was referring to the spiritual torpor prevalent across Western Christianity.One of the Communion’s senior bishops, the Rt Rev David Beetge, Bishop of the Highveld, (South Africa) and co-chairman of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) said that the Cardinal’s address to the bishops at Lambeth “wasn’t directed at any province” of the church.
Cardinal Dias’ point about spiritual feeblemindedness was a critique of those who “live for the present moment,” Bishop Beetge said. His message to the Anglican Communion was that Rome is “not going to leave you. We want you to find a way to hold together at this moment.”
The speech was an important contribution to Anglican Roman Catholic dialogue, Bishop Beetge explained, as it affirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s desire for the Anglican Communion to prosper and for the two to grow together in unity. Anglicans “are part of the Catholic Church,” Bishop Beetge said, and “we must take this into account” when ordering our ecclesial lives. “This is a voice we have to listen to,” he said. Tradition was a central element in the Anglican ethos, he said, for “we are not made apostles for this moment” but for a universal and undivided church of Christ.
In describing the ecumenical nature of evangelism, Cardinal Dias stressed the importance of an undivided Christian moral voice.
“When we live myopically in the fleeting present, oblivious of our past heritage and apostolic traditions, we could well be suffering from spiritual Alzheimer’s. And when we behave in a disorderly manner, going whimsically our own way without any coordination with the head or the other members of our community, it could be ecclesial Parkinson’s,” he said.
Bishop Beetge conceded Cardinal Dias “may well have been referring to Anglicans,” but dismissed suggestions that the dialogue between the two faith communities had come to an end.
While not downplaying the significance of recent innovations of doctrine and discipline in the Anglican Communion, Cardinal Dias references to the agreed statement on Mary executed by Catholics and Anglicans were an example of the shared belief “that we should go forward” in our talks, Bishop Beetge said.
Elected bishop in 1990, Bishop Beetge said the South African experience of reconciliation of seemingly irreconcilable views, showed that hope was possible for a resolution of the Anglican crisis. He stated that early in his episcopacy he would visit white congregations where prayers would be offered “for our boys on the border,” while in visits to black congregations prayers would be offered for the “freedom fighters.”
The South African church went through a fierce struggle over apartheid and the wars of national liberation, yet was able to survive by seeking God’s will for his church through prayer and patience.
He hoped the 14th Lambeth Conference would “move us one or two steps forward” in settling the Communion’s divisions and he prayed that “those not here would rejoin the process” of reconciliation.
We live in a “complex time in a complex world,” Bishop Beetge said, but “we must not give up hope. We must not give up on unity.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce