Episcopal Press and News
Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation Rebukes Parties in New Jersey Church Skirmish
Episcopal News Service. February 14, 1991 [91037]
Members of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation in the United States of America (ARC/USA) have publically criticized members of the Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church in New Jersey for "recent mutual criticisms" stemming from a report in the New York Times on January 30.
In a letter to the Times, the 16-member consultation said, "It is easy to criticize another Christian group for either theological or sociological reasons. Such criticisms, if made irresponsibly in the public forum, set back the cause of Christian unity, demean the other group, and invite a similar public response."
The ARC/USA letter responded to a controversy sparked by comments in a draft document written by a task force in the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, entitled Our Common Life: Being an Episcopalian in the Decade of Evangelism. The report sought to describe the contribution of the Episcopal Church to various issues confronting society including the role of biblical authority, understanding marriage and human sexuality, and the role of women in church and society.
In one appendix on feminism that received a great deal of press attention, the report said, "One has to say that the Roman Catholic position with regard to women is so insulting, so retrograde, that we can respond only by saying that women should, for the sake of their own humanity, leave that communion."
In a response printed in a Newark archdiocesan newspaper, Roman Catholic Archbishop Theodore McCarrick characterized the comments as "Catholic bashing" and "open hostility."
Members of the ARC/USA said, "We renounce any call by church representatives, addressed to members of another church, to defect or leave."
The Newark preliminary report, prepared by a 12-member committee of laypersons and clergy, is not an official document of the diocese, but was accepted for study and revision, to be presented at the 1992 diocesan convention.
The Times account noted that John Spong, Episcopal bishop of Newark, was not the author of the report, and that in an interview he emphasized that it was not a final church document. "It may not be the language I would have used," he said, "but it is important that people bring with them any passions they believe."
The ARC/USA letter closed with an apparent rebuff of Spong's sentiment. "Occasionally a group within one church may develop a statement contrary to the ecumenical spirit. The bishop should request that such a statement be withdrawn immediately, inasmuch as the bishop is the guardian of faith, unity, and discipline of the church."