That, having received through the House of Bishops the request of the General Commission on Church Union for a revision of the present ecclesiastical discipline to permit occasions for reciprocal Inter-communion: this General Synod respectfully requests the Diocesan Bishops of The Anglican Church of Canada to permit Anglicans and members of other Christian Churches to share in Eucharistic practice with the full knowledge and consent of the proper authorities.
Voting proceeded by Orders on the amendment. Clergy, seventy for, thirty-five against. Laity, seventy-seven for, twelve against. Upper House, twenty-four for, ten against. The amendment as amended was then put to the House.
Clergy, eight-two for, twenty-one against. Laity, seventy-eight for, eleven against. Upper House, twenty-five for, nine against. The motion as amended was put to the House.
Clergy, eighty-four for, nineteen against. Laity, seventy-nine for, eleven against. Upper House, twenty-six for, nine against. CARRIED in both Houses.
"[By] G.W.H. Lampe, Ely Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge".
"We cannot deny that the Sacrament of Holy Communion is a means, and, one any adequate doctrine of the Eucharist, the primary means, of all grace. Communion with our Lord in his Body and Blood is, indeed, the goal of holiness; but it is also the primary means toward the attainment of holiness, for in it we receive the grace which sanctifies. It is likewise the goal of unity; but also the means towards the attainment of unity. .... Intercommunion between those who intend to seek the grace of unity is not an optional extra but a paramount obligation. It is not merely something permissible; it is an urgent and compelling duty. Growth into unity is bound to be gradual, but unless growth together in sacramental worship is at the heart of the process there is not hope that it can ever be achieved. Reunion is the coming together of worshipping communities in the Spirit of Christ. It is not an act of ecclesiastical diplomacy or of academic theological debate". -- p. 19.
"The [Simeon] Booklets are written authoritatively and from the standpoint of a reasonable and Anglican form of Evangelicalism". -- back cover.
Deviations from church discipline and practice arising out of ecumenical enthusiasm are a matter of concern to the Anglican Church of Canada.
The church has played an important role in bringing about a relaxation of tensions that for centuries have been divisive religious factors. But its bishops stress that negotiations with other churches have union and full communion as their objective and until this is attained Anglican clergy and laity should observe canonical laws and regulations.
In connection with marriages of Anglicans and non-Anglicans the House of Bishops has reaffirmed that Anglican clergy may accept invitations to participate in services in other communions provided that no breach of the matrimonial discipline of the Anglican Church of Canada is involved.
The House of Bishops recognizes that the instruction on mixed marriages issued in Rome last March by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith represents a real effort by the Roman Catholic Church to solve some of the problems involved in this difficult question. However, the bishops feel that the instruction does not really succeed in meeting the Anglican viewpoint.
Therefore, in the case of a marriage in a Roman Catholic church involving an Anglican who has given a pre-nuptial undertaking respecting the nurture of children in the Roman Catholic faith, the participation of an Anglican priest is not permitted. Such participation, by the terms of the Rome decree, is limited to a post-service exhortation and word of goodwill. If the Anglican party to the marriage has made no pre-nuptial agreement, the regulation does not apply and each case must be dealt with individually.
At the marriage of an Anglican and a member of another communion in an Anglican church, a non-Anglican priest or minister may be invited to assist, reading from the Anglican marriage service such prayers as are generally allowed by diocesan bishops.
To meet increasing pressures for inter-communion and to regularize practices that have developed in some churches, the Anglican House of Bishops has modified regulations concerning the administration of Holy Communion to unconfirmed persons. The bishops stipulate, however, that Anglican clergy are not authorized to issue any open invitation to Holy Communion.
The new ruling, to be used by diocesan bishops at their discretion, would permit Holy Communion to be administered to the following baptized persons of other communions:
Isolated communicants who have no regular opportunity of receiving the sacrament from their own ministers; staff members and pupils in hostels, boarding schools and colleges where there is a chapel in which the eucharist is celebrated; staff and inmates or patients of institutions in which there is an Anglican chaplaincy; Christian people gathered together for dialogue and prayer for the unity of Christendom; tourists and travellers attending Anglican churches; members of families, some non-Anglican, who on special occasions wish to receive the Holy Communion together.
Generally speaking, Anglican clergy do not refuse communion to any baptized persons, but in some cases they inquire into the communicant status of individuals.
"The prospect of closer communion between Lutheran and Anglican Churches in northern Europe was boosted when church representatives approved a working paper at their fourth and final plenary session, held in Jarvenpaa, Finland from 9-13 October [1992]. The document proposes that closer communion and practical co-operation be established between the Lutheran Churches in the Nordic and Baltic regions and the Anglican Churches in Britain and Ireland".
That this National Executive Council express its dismay over the unauthorized involvement of the Bishop of London [Graham Leonard] in a parish which is not in communion with the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. and outside his jurisdiction and convey its support to the Church of England House of Bishops and to the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. regarding their stands on this jurisdictional matter. CARRIED #63-11-86
Letter to the editor suggesting that there was more support for Mary McAleese taking communion at an Anglican Church in Ireland than what Journal article showed.
A photo of Governor General Adrienne Clarkson receiving communion in a Catholic Church set off a discussion between the Anglicans and Catholics. Excerpts from letters written by Archbishop Gervais and Alyson Barnett-Cowan.
The Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue is going to produce a pamphlet for times when both faiths are at eucharist together and for couples considering marriage.
"This is the second of a proposed series of Prism pamphlets on a variety of subjects. Unlike the first this is a reprint of an article which appeared in Prism in March 1962." -- inside front cover.
"The Rt. Rev. John Arthur Robinson, Bishop of Woolwich, is a suffragan to the Bishop of Southwark.". -- inside front cover.
"Prism Pamphlets. General Editor: Timothy Beaumont." -- inside front cover.
Date taken from library accession stamp on front cover of "Aug 7 1962".
Includes bibliographical references.
"I had the bad luck to finish the original draft of this pamphlet the very day the Open Letter to the Archbishops from the Thirty-Two Theologians appeared [November 1961]" (p. 1). .... "I therefore find the recent editorial suggestion of 'The Church Times' of 'an invitation to all baptised and communicant Christians of good standing in their own Churches to come, when they so desire, to receive the Holy Communion in their parish Church' rather shocking. I am not often more rigorist than 'The Church Times'. But I believe this proposal reveals a much lower doctrine of the Church than that of the Open Letter. It also discloses in a particularly instructive way the Anglican tendency to assume that as long as there is an episcopally ordained celebrant no other theological issue matters very much" (p. 7). .... "In fact one must, I think, say that if, and at the point at which intercommunion is ever justified short of union, reciprocal intercommunion is also justified. If we are regarding ourselves and each other as self-sufficient coexistent denominations, content to continue living and working side by side, then intercommunion merely deepens our guilt. But if we are seeking to live by the same unity which we know we do not possess but which we believe Christ has the power to make of us, then our 'locus standi' is utterly different. Intercommunion is then the great sacrament of justification by faith, the pledge of our new being in Christ, and all that is required for it is the trust that grace does indeed meet us through each of our sacraments however defective" (p. 11-12).