On November 28, the Holy See Press Office announced that the third phase of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) would begin in 2010.According the Vatican, this third phase will focus on "fundamental questions concerning the Church--local Church and universal Church--understood as communion, and on the way in which the local and universal Church can, in communion, discern just moral teaching."
The members of the commission and the date of its first meeting will be determined in the next few months.
This announcement follows the November 21 meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, which took place shortly after the Pope's surprising announcement of a new constitution allowing disenchanted Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism while retaining many of their traditions and rites.
This constitution also allows for the ordination as Catholic priests of married former Anglican clergy.
According to the Holy See, during this meeting Pope Benedict and Archbishop Williams focused on "the challenges facing all Christian communities at the beginning of this millennium" and the need to "promote forms of collaboration and shared witness in facing these challenges."
They also reiterated "the shared will to continue and to consolidate the ecumenical relationship between Catholics and Anglicans."
However, according to The Guardian, the Church of England's version casts this brief meeting--which lasted only 20 minutes and was not witnessed by journalists--as the "most strained encounter between a pontiff and primate since the two churches initiated direct, high-level contacts in the 1960s."
Following the meeting, in an interview with Vatican Radio, Williams stated:
"I wanted to express some of the concerns about the way in which the announcement of the [decree] had been handled and received, because clearly many Anglicans, myself included, felt that it put us in an awkward position for a time—not the content so much as some of the messages that were given out. So I needed to share with the pope some of those concerns, and I think those were expressed and heard in a very friendly spirit."
It remains to be seen how many Anglicans will convert, and the effect such an influx of conservative adherents--largely disillusioned by the Anglican Church's acceptance of female and openly gay clergy--will have on the Church.
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