1. Our two communions have been separated for over 400 years. This
separation, involving serious doctrinal differences, has been aggravated by
theological polemics and mutual intolerance, which have reached into and
affected many departments of life. Nevertheless, although our unity has been
impaired through separation, it has not been destroyed. Many bonds still unite
us: we confess the same faith in the one true God; we have received the same
Spirit; we have been baptized with the same baptism; and we preach the same
Christ.
2. Controversy between our two communions has centered on the
eucharist,
on the meaning and function of ordained ministry, and on the nature and exercise
of authority in the Church. Although we are not yet in full communion, what the
Commission has done has convinced us that substantial agreement on these
divisive issues is now possible.
3. In producing these Statements, we have been concerned, not to evade the
difficulties, but rather to avoid the controversial language in which they have
often been discussed. We have taken seriously the issues that have divided us,
and have sought solutions by re-examining our common inheritance, particularly
the Scriptures.
4. The subjects which we were required to consider as a result of the
Report of the Joint Preparatory Commission all relate to the true nature of the
Church. Fundamental to all our Statements is the concept of koinonia
(communion). In the early Christian tradition, reflection on the experience of
koinonia opened the way to the understanding of the mystery of the
Church. Although ‘koinonia’ is never equated with ‘Church’ in the New
Testament, it is the term that most aptly expresses the mystery underlying the
various New Testament images of the Church. When, for example, the Church is
called the people of the new covenant or the bride of Christ, the context is
primarily that of communion. Although such images as the Temple, the new Jerusalem, or the royal
priesthood may carry institutional overtones, their primary purpose is to depict
the Church's experience as a partaking in the salvation of Christ. When the
Church is described as the body of Christ, the household of God, or the holy
nation, the emphasis is upon the relationships among its members as well as upon
their relationship with Christ the Head.
5. Union
with God in Christ Jesus through the Spirit is the heart of Christian
koinonia. Among the various ways in which the term koinonia is used
in different New Testament contexts, we concentrate on that which signifies a
relation between persons resulting from their participation in one and the same
reality (cf. 1 John 1:3). The Son of God has taken to himself our human nature,
and he has sent upon us his Spirit, who makes us so truly members of the body of
Christ that we too are able to call God ‘Abba, Father’ (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6).
Moreover, sharing in the same Holy Spirit, whereby we become members of the same
body of Christ and adopted children of the same Father, we are also bound to one
another in a completely new relationship. Koinonia with one another is
entailed by our koinonia with God in Christ. This is the mystery of the
Church.
6. This theme of koinonia runs through our Statements. In them we
present the eucharist as the effectual sign of koinonia, episcope
as serving the koinonia, and primacy as a visible link and focus of
koinonia. In the Statement
Eucharistic Doctrine the
eucharist
is seen as the sacrament of Christ, by which he builds up and nurtures his
people in the koinonia of his body. By the eucharist all the baptized are
brought into communion with the source of koinonia. He is the one who
destroyed the walls dividing humanity (Eph. 2:14); he is the one who died to
gather into unity all the children of God his Father (cf. John 11:52; 17:20ff).
In the Statement Ministry and Ordination it is made clear that
episcope exists only to serve koinonia. The ordained minister
presiding at the eucharist is a sign of Christ gathering his people and giving
them his body and blood. The Gospel he preaches is the Gospel of unity. Through
the ministry of word and sacrament the Holy Spirit is given for the building up
of the body of Christ. It is the responsibility of those exercising episcope
to enable all the people to use the gifts of the Spirit which they have received
for the enrichment of the Church's common life. It is also their responsibility
to keep the community under the law of Christ in mutual love and in concern for
others; for the reconciled community of the Church has been given the ministry
of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18).
In both Statements on authority the Commission, discussing primacy, sees it as a
necessary link between all those exercising episcope within the
koinonia. All ministers of the Gospel need to be in communion with one
another, for the one Church is a communion of local churches. They also need to
be united in the apostolic faith. Primacy, as a focus within the koinonia,
is an assurance that what they teach and do is in accord with the faith of the
apostles.
7. The Church as koinonia requires visible expression because it is
intended to be the ‘sacrament’ of God's saving work. A sacrament is both sign
and instrument. The koinonia is a sign that God's purpose in Christ is
being realized in the world by grace. It is also an instrument for the
accomplishment of this purpose, inasmuch as it proclaims the truth of the Gospel
and witnesses to it by its life, thus entering more deeply into the mystery of
the Kingdom. The community thus announces what it is called to become.
8. The koinonia is grounded in the word of God preached, believed
and obeyed. Through this word the saving work of God is proclaimed. In the
fullness of time this salvation was realized in the person of Jesus, the Word of
God incarnate. Jesus prepared his followers to receive through the Holy Spirit
the fruit of his death and resurrection, the culmination of his life of
obedience, and to become the heralds of salvation. In the New Testament it is
clear that the community is established by a baptism inseparable from faith and
conversion, that its mission is to proclaim the Gospel of God, and that its
common life is sustained by the eucharist. This remains the pattern for the
Christian Church. The Church is the community of those reconciled with God and
with each other because it is the community of those who believe in Jesus Christ
and are justified through God's grace. It is also the reconciling community,
because it has been called to bring to all mankind, through the preaching of the
Gospel, God's gracious offer of redemption.
9. Christ's will and prayer are that his disciples should be one. Those
who have received the same word of God and have been baptized in the same Spirit
cannot, without disobedience, acquiesce in a state of separation. Unity is of
the essence of the Church, and since the Church is visible its unity also must
be visible. Full visible communion between our two Churches cannot be achieved
without mutual recognition of sacraments and ministry, together with the common
acceptance of a universal primacy, at one with the episcopal college in the
service of the koinonia.
