c. 2000 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) A historic meeting of the world’s top Anglican and Catholic bishops, set to begin Sunday (May 14) in Toronto, could be a major step toward the eventual healing of the 500-year-old rift between the two church bodies.

The first-ever gathering of 26 high-level Anglican and Catholic bishops, including Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, is the culmination of 25 years of theological dialogue aimed at improving relations and bringing the two denominations back together.

“This is an important milestone in the history of both churches. In many ways, it’s a scandal that as Christians we’re not united. We’ll be working toward a blending of the two traditions,” said Bishop Gerald Wiesner, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, in an interview with RNS.

The Toronto meeting is building on the momentum created last June when the joint Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission issued the surprising declaration that all Christians should accept the authority of the Roman Catholic pope as a “gift to be received by all churches.”

The statement is nonbinding. But it is conceivable, Wiesner said, that next week’s dialogue could some day lead to Catholics and Anglicans finding common ground on prickly issues such as the ordination of married men, women as priests, homosexual activity, artificial birth control, divorce and sharing communion.

The Ontario gathering will be co-chaired by Carey and the highest-ranking Catholic official in attendance, Cardinal Edward Cassidy, from the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Unity.

U.S. participants will include Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold of the Episcopal Church and Archbishop Alexander Brunett, head of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Seattle. The two are co-chairs of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission.

Canada was chosen as the site of the unprecedented discussions in part because it has a long history of dialogue between the two denominations and is seen as neutral, not like Britain, the seat of the worldwide Anglican communion, or Italy, home of the Vatican.

In addition, a Canadian Anglican bishop, John Baycroft, now based in Rome, is the influential international head of Anglican-Catholic dialogue.

There are almost 1 billion Catholics in the world, and 60 million Anglicans. The two churches split in 1534 after Pope Clement VII refused to grant King Henry VIII an annulment in his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne Boleyn. The king denied papal authority over England, and the Anglican communion was born.

Militant Northern Ireland Protestant leader, the Rev. Ian Paisley, who has referred to the pope as “the Antichrist,” has pledged to lead a protest outside the suburban Toronto retreat center where the leaders will gather from Sunday to Saturday. Paisley calls Anglican participants “traitors.”

While defending Paisley’s right to free speech, Wiesner regrets that Paisley attacked rather than engaged in the kind of “open and honest dialogue” that will be necessary for Catholics and Anglicans to fully air differences and move toward unity.

Wiesner, who is also bishop for the northern British Columbia diocese of Prince George, noted the format of the Toronto dialogue is informal; an agenda will be created as the meeting progresses.

Anglican Primate Michael Peers, meanwhile, said numerous stumbling blocks to a merger of denominations remain, including disagreements over women’s ordination to the priesthood, the details of what it would mean to accept the authority of the pope and the fact that the Roman Catholic Church doesn’t accept Anglican ordinations.

Underscoring the continuing separation, even at Toronto’s dialogue the bishops from each denomination will not share a common communion.

And Peers, while stressing overall relations are good between the two denominations, said he doesn’t expect to see the two churches united in his lifetime.

Wiesner, however, is somewhat more optimistic. He believes, for example, the Catholic church could soon become more open to married priests. As well, Wiesner said the pope’s authority is increasingly moving away from a model of infallibility to collegiality, which would be more amenable to Anglicans.

Given that the two denominations had historical links up to 1534, Wiesner said there is far more likelihood of achieving unity with Anglicans than with evangelical Protestants.

He said a “greater richness” for both could result if the two denominations come together in unity.

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