Amid the cold, signs of a thaw

The state of dialogue between the Churches has been the cause of much hand-wringing among ecumenists. Yet at a recent colloquium at Durham University, which brought together representatives from the different denominations, cracks in the ice were sighted and celebrated

In deepest Winter there are a few intimations of spring ? an early snowdrop, the scent of witch hazel and the buds of Lenten roses just emerging. But if we are in the middle of an ecumenical winter, there are signs that the cause of Christian unity is not dead.

These signs were manifest during a major international gathering of theologians at Ushaw College near Durham. One happened at an Anglican Eucharist when a curial cardinal went up to a Church of England bishop, head bowed, for a blessing at Communion.

At least two Catholic bishops, the Ushaw rector and most other Catholics present did the same. The gesture was symbolic of the whole tenor of a colloquium held over five days with the specific objective of discovering what Catholics could learn from the Orthodox, Anglican and Methodist Churches.

During his introductory remarks, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, confessed to being pleasantly surprised by the approach summed up in the title ?Catholic Learning: Explorations in Receptive Ecumenism? and seemed to find it refreshing at a time when most ecumenists were inclined to wring their hands. The concept of the colloquium was, he said, more British or Anglican: a much more practical and appealing ?via media?. Efforts by the Catholic Church to listen and learn from other traditions were, the cardinal said, entirely in tune with John Paul II?s definition of ecumenical dialogue as ?not only an exchange of ideas but an exchange of gifts?.

Away from the colloquium platform, there were some wintry blasts when the cardinal gave journalists a progress report on ecumenical dialogue: with the Orthodox Churches there had been advances and there was broad agreement on doctrinal matters. There were differences of culture and mentality, however, and no obvious solution to the stumbling block of papal primacy. The state of dialogue with the Anglicans was positively icy.

Cardinal Kasper told The Tablet that plans to ordain women bishops in the Church of England exacerbated the existing obstacle of women?s ordination. ?I see no solution at this moment because the Catholic Church will not go in this direction and the Orthodox and oriental churches neither and therefore there is a decision now for the Anglican Communion whether it will be more on the side of the traditional Churches of the first millennium or on the side of the Protestant Churches coming out of the sixteenth century.

?That is a decision which the Anglican Communion will have to take. There is no doubt it will be an institutional obstacle and institutional obstacles are very difficult to overcome later on.? Ecumenism, added the cardinal, could only proceed step by step. ?What is possible today we will do. What the future will bring we do not know.?

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will hold further talks with Cardinal Kasper, with a visit to Rome scheduled in the autumn. The two enjoy a warm friendship and the cardinal quietly visited Lambeth Palace last February to advise Dr Williams before the Anglican primates met in Belfast to discuss the Windsor Report. It was a key meeting, with those taking part trying to map out a future for the Anglican Communion in the face of splits among member churches over the issue of homosexuality. Cardinal Kasper said Dr Williams asked him to produce a long letter setting out the implications for ecumenical dialogue. It was copied to the primates.

?More we cannot do,? said the cardinal. ?It?s a very sad thing and we pray also for the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion that they may find inner unity so that ecumenical dialogue can go on because we must know who is our partner,? he said. As for the rise of free Pentecostal and charismatic churches, particularly in Africa, Latin America and Asia, their lack of official representation and ?aggressive? stance made dialogue difficult. Cardinal Kasper said they presented a new challenge that must be addressed.

Immediately before the colloquium, Cardinal Kasper received an honorary doctorate of divinity from the University of Durham ? his first from an English university. A Catholic lecturer in systematic theology, Dr Paul Murray, was among those who nominated the cardinal for the award. Dr Murray also organised the colloquium ? a project originally intended to be a much more modest affair for around 40 participants but which expanded to 140 theologians from 10 countries around the world.

From Friday last week until Monday, the theologians presented papers, held group discussions and attended liturgies. Dr Murray accepted that the goal of unity in the short to medium term was unrealistic but that the approach of the colloquium could bear fruit in the long run.

?Receptive ecumenism is a strategy designed to ask: How do we proceed precisely in that context? Not by avoiding it. But what do we do if the worst case scenario happens? Were Anglicanism to fragment we would proceed to ask ?What can we learn?? There will always be things we can learn: there is synodical governance, more collegial ways of operating ? among both the bishops and priests ? and how we make decisions as a whole Church. And while that becomes a very long-term strategy, it is a strategy of realistic conversion that will only go anywhere if Rome changes as well as the other traditions changing,? he said.

Certainly among some of the most senior figures present, the colloquium represented an important breakthrough. The Catholic theologian, Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Cambridge, called it the most remarkable event in living memory. The Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, hailed it as a new chapter in ecumenism. He told me that for years the quest for unity had felt unfocused and over-bureaucratic. Not any more.

?When we get a leading cardinal saying that receptive ecumenism is the name of the game and we are looking at the question of what gifts other Churches can give us that we need in order to be more complete than we were before, then this is like a curtain being opened and we can see a new bit of landscape out there. It is very exciting,? said Dr Wright. He drew great hope from a revival of interest in exploring the central tenets of the faith across the traditions.?If we celebrate that and live by that, who knows what is going to grow?? he said.

There was a more qualified endorsement from some of the Catholics present who were anxious about the divisions in their own Church. The former editor of the Jesuit journal America, Fr Thomas Reese, said the progress achieved by the Catholic Church in ecumenical dialogue in the past 50 years had been miraculous but that there were now people with weak credentials in the Vatican passing judgement on giants in the theological field. There were ?fantastic? staff operating out of the Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Council for Interreligious Dialogue but each played second fiddle to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In electing Pope Benedict, he continued, the Conclave had chosen the brightest man in the room but not necessarily the man who would listen to the men and women outside the room. ?When theologians become Popes, they have already made up their minds about the decisions they are going to make,? he said.

The setting for the colloquium is in itself a living example of how the Catholic Church can work towards unity with other Churches. The great northern seminary of St Cuthbert at Ushaw was founded in Douai in 1568 and has existed on its present site since 1808. It grew in the years that followed, forming hundreds of young men for the priesthood, many of them beginning at the junior seminary at 11. Now there are just 19 seminarians and the college has diversified ecumenically, forging links with local Anglican and Methodist institutions and offering courses for students of other denominations, with a conference centre welcoming people from outside and also a hall of residence for the University of Durham. With its magnificent neo-gothic architecture, shrines, paintings and other treasures, Ushaw remains unmistakably Catholic but it is now looking outwards and has a mission to learn as well as teach. Can our Church do the same?