No, I hadn't heard of NDCU either, but it might be momentous for church life in Aotearoa New Zealand.
According to this Taonga report, heads of Anglican, Methodist and Roman Catholic churches in Aotearoa New Zealand have been meeting together in a formal gathering named, "National Dialogue for Christian Unity" (NDCU).
As you know, Jesus has been praying about this for a long time!
3 comments:
Yes, Peter, the fact that Jesus is praying for us all might just mean that, despite some Anglicans' problems with Motion 30 (ACANZP) neither Jesus nor the Methodist Church, nor even the Roman Catholic Church has given up on us. Tjhere is, indeed A WAY FORWARD! AND, the fact that many of us not having heard of this initiative before doesn't, per se, invalidate it.
In fact, Peter, there is a follow up week of prayer for Christian Unity 8-15 May. I have just got my booklet and assume your parishes will have them soon, if not already.
Nick
"... despite some Anglicans' problems with Motion 30 (ACANZP) neither Jesus nor the Methodist Church, nor even the Roman Catholic Church has given up on us."
No, Father Ron, they haven't :-) Andrew's review of AWF was not only the least dark report review that I have ever seen from him, but careful to distinguish the flaws of the report from the possibilities of the proposal. And although there was some tough talk to please the folks back home, even the GAFCON Primates did not altogether give up on TEC as they had threatened to do. Has something changed?
My guess is that the flop of the Synod on the Family has brought both sides to see that there are limits to what sheer authoritarianism can accomplish in a well-balanced church. When even a popular Pope is losing votes in his own synod, one can't seriously expect less exalted leaders to keep a lid on the other side, whichever side one regards as other. Dialogue and negotiation are unavoidable, and if a church won't do it at home as ACANZP does, it will have to do it in Canterbury as TEC did.
So Francis may have achieved more by losing than he could have gained by winning. And in a few years, ACANZP might stand rather tall for having taken on a tough problem and soldiered on through a murky report and contentious synods, general and diocesan, to a centrist solution that some may criticise but none can improve upon.
Bowman Walton
Post a Comment