COMMUNIQUÉ

ANGLICAN–ROMAN CATHOLIC INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION

Plenary Meeting in Larnaca, 18–15 May 2023

The Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III) met in Larnaca, Cyprus from 8 to 15 May 2023. The Commission is grateful to the Most Revd Michael Lewis, outgoing Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf and Primate of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, for the many ways in which he and his colleagues assisted with the arrangements for the meeting.

Following several years of postponed, virtual or partially attended meetings, all the members of the Commission were able to be present in person in Larnaca. Members welcomed two new Co-Secretaries, Dr Christopher Wells (Anglican) and the Revd Martin Browne OSB (Catholic), and two new Consultants, the Revd Anthony Currer and the Revd Dr Stewart Clem.

The Commission is currently working on the second part of the mandate entrusted to ARCIC III by the late Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop Rowan Williams, examining how the Church local, regional and global discerns right ethical teaching. It is envisaged that this work will result in the publication of an Agreed Statement, to complement the document published by the Commission in 2017, Walking Together on the Way: Learning to be the Church. Local, Regional and Universal. A major part of the Commission’s work during its meeting in Larnaca was devoted to work on two case studies, one where Catholics and Anglicans reached broadly the same teaching, and one where they did not. Reflecting more on the respective discernment processes than on the moral issues themselves, and adopting a Receptive Ecumenism approach, the Commission worked on identifying how each communion can learn from the experience of the other.

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Photograph taken outside the Anglican Cathedral at Nicosia at the meeting of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) in Cyprus. Archbishop Bernard is seated (right) with the co-chair of ARCIC, Archbishop Philip Freier (Archbishop of Melbourne).