A Catholic Future:

Shared Mission Beyond Unitary Communions

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church told a mostly Catholic audience in January 2011 that the two churches have a shared small-C catholic future beyond ecumenical differences, with actions rooted instead in shared beliefs about baptism and lived out in global outreach, political activism and aid to the poor.

In the annual Hecker Lecture at St. Paul’s College in Washington, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop since 2006 of the Episcopal Church, focused on ways that Catholics and Episcopalians can work together. “It’s God’s mission, after all, not ours or the church’s,” she said. “It’s God’s vision, and even though we see it dimly, it has been shared repeatedly by the prophets throughout our shared history of salvation.”

Bishop Jefferts Schori is chief pastor and primate of the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, and the first woman to head an Anglican province. Her address referred only briefly to some of the theological and sacramental differences between the Episcopal and Catholic churches. She traced some of the points of difference between the churches back to before the Reformation, when missionaries responded differently to regional conditions, challenges and gifts, laying the groundwork for “contextual diversity” that continues to define different strands of Christianity. She said, “A bright line has been drawn by the Roman magisterium about what sorts of Christian companionship are permissible and which are not, particularly around sacramental fellowship. Yet even in that context there is the possibility of sharing baptismal fellowship, for we both recognize the validity of Trinitarian baptism.”

Read the whole lecture: