69 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Union of the Churches
2. Anglican Platform: The Anglican communion possesses important points of contact and sympathy with all types of Christianity, whether they are called Catholic or Protestant. Its position is really
unique in this regard; and the work of eae ie mediating and of laboring for Christian reunion seems to be providentially assigned to the Anglican churches. Accordingly, the problem of unity has loomed large in Anglican thought and effort. The Anglican realizes than an adequate movement for reunion must be worldwide in its secope—embracing both Catholics and Protestants within its ultimate reference; but he also perceives that positive elements of truth are included in the contentions of the different communions, elements which are vital to Christianity, and which may not be surrendered or driven into neglect even in the interests of unity. A union obtained by compromise in such matters can not, he believes, be either permanent or blessed. Love must be paramount, but a love which encourages men to act contrary to their deeper convictions is surely unchristian.
The American Protestant Episcopal Church inherits the Anglican position and the advantages described above in relation to the problem of unity. Moreover, two circumstances have tended to accentuate these advantages: exemption from the hindrances to free action which connection with the State involves, and the fact that immigration has brought almost every communion of Christendom into its immediate neighborhood. Accordingly, the problem of unity has assumed peculiar and increasing importance among the members of that church, and in the deliberations of its general conventions. Since 1853 various joint committees have been appointed and continued on church unity, and on ecclesiastical relations with various churches, and these committees have engaged in much fraternal negotiation, and have helped to remove certain mutual misunderstandings. In response to a memorial, the House of Bishops issued in 1886 its well-known Declaration on Unity, to which was appended an expression of “ our desire and readiness . . . to enter into brotherly conference with all or any Christian Bodies seeking the restoration of the organic unity of the Church, with a view to the earnest study of the conditions under which so priceless a blessing might happily be brought to pass”? (Journal of the General Convention of 1886, pp. 79-80). This declaration mentions four particulars—the so-called Quadrilateral (text in FUNDAMENTAL DocTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY, § 4) —which have been widely understood to represent formal terms of unity, an acceptance of which would suffice to secure union with the Episcopal Church, although, as a matter of fact, these particulars were given as leading instances of what the bishops declared to be ‘‘ inherent parts” of ‘“‘ the substantial deposit of Christian Faith and Order committed by Christ and his Apostles to the Church unto the end of the world, and therefore incapable of compromise or surrender.’’ The document was expository. The bishops neither did nor could (except with the concurrence of the House of Deputies) offer formal
2. In the American Episcopal
Church,
terms of union; they simply declared what they believed to be fundamental principles, and left the discussion of terms to the future.
In 1888 the Lambeth Conference (q.v.) of the bishops in communion with the see of Canterbury adopted a resolution in which the American ‘‘ Quadrilateral ’ was embodied, as follows: “‘ That in the opinion of this conference, the following Articles supply a basis on which approach may be by God’s blessing made toward Home Reunion:
alicia (A) The Holy Scriptures of the Old Can tivancn and New Testaments, as containing
all things necessary to salvation, and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith. (B) The Apostles’ Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian Faith. (C) The two sacraments ordained by Christ himself—Baptism and the Supper of the Lord—ministered with unfailing use of Christ’s words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by him. (D) The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of his Church.” The conference recommended brotherly conferences “‘ in order to consider what steps can be taken either toward corporate reunion, or toward such relations as may prepare the way for fuller organic unity hereafter.””’ Thus the whole Anglican episcopate adopted the American platform (Lambeth Conferences of 1867, 1878, and 1888, ed. R. T. Davidson, London, 1889, pp. 280-281). The claim that the historic episcopate was “‘ committed by Christ and his Apostles to the Church unto the end of the world’ has been much debated. Modern scholars consider that the episcopate originated by organic development rather than by formal appointment ab initio; but the manner of its origin is immaterial, if its development was determined in result by the Holy Spirit, and if the continuance of the episcopate is by Christ’s will. The conviction that it is his will can alone justify making acceptance of the episcopate an essential condition of unity, and until non-episcopal bodies reach this conviction, they can not be expected to acknowledge that the historic episcopate is essential. In brief, an important difference of conviction must be removed before the “ Quadrilateral’ can become a generally accepted basis for the discussion of terms of unity. The negotiations which followed between com, mittees appointed by the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches (1887-96) represent in their 4. Episco- lack of results what was inevitable. paland The Presbyterian committee took the Presbyte- ground that no negotiations for union rian Nego- could be pursued by it except on equal tiations- terms with regard to the ministry, and the Northern General Assembly of 1896 in courteous terms suspended correspondence with the Episcopal commission until it might ‘‘ be reopened by the acceptance by that [the Episcopal] Church of the doctrine of ‘mutual recognition and reciprocity.’ ”’ This negative result accentuates the undeniable fact that, so long as certain existing differences touching faith and order continue, formal negotiations for unity between the bodies thus differing
Union of the Churcnes