The steering committee of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) met in Washington DC, USA, from 29 September to 2 October 2024. The meeting was kindly hosted by Georgetown University, in association with Virginia Theological Seminary. The steering committee was joined for its meeting by three of the bishops who took part in the IARCCUM summit meeting and pilgrimage of Catholic and Anglican bishops which took place in Rome and Canterbury in January 2024.
During their meeting, the steering committee reflected on the future of IARCCUM, including means of maintaining contact with the pairs of the bishops who took part in the 2024 summit, and the question of replacement of IARCCUM bishops on their retirement from office. The steering committee also spent time reflecting on the origins and specific ecumenical task of IARCCUM, seeking to discern new ways to contribute to the work of deepening communion between Anglicans and Catholics. The committee also reviewed IARCCUM’s most important publication to date, the 2007 document Growing Together in Unity and Mission, with a view to beginning work on a new document as a resource for bishops of the two churches.
The meeting took place in the context of shared meals and worship. On Monday 30 September, the group participating in an ecumenical service of Vespers in Georgetown University’s Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart, with Catholic Co-Chair, Archbishop Donal Bolen of Regina (Canada) presiding, and Anglican Co-Chair, Bishop Robert Innes of the Church of England Diocese in Europe (Belgium) preaching. On Tuesday 1 October, the group visited Virginia Theological Seminary, the largest seminary in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. During a dinner for staff and students hosted by the Dean of the Seminary, the two Co-Secretaries of IARCCUM, Dr Christopher Wells of the Anglican Communion Office and Fr Martin Browne OSB of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, shared personal testimonies of their experience of ecumenical work and prayer, and Archbishop Samuel Peni of Equatoria in the Episcopal Church of South Sudan spoke about the very close relationships between the two churches in his country.
The meeting concluded on Wednesday 2 October, with a public seminar in Georgetown, co-sponsored by the university’s Office of the President and Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, in association with the Office of the Dean of Virginia Theological Seminary. Following an introduction by Dr Joe Ferrara, Vice-President and Chief of Staff of the university, Dr John Borelli, the university President’s special assistant for Catholic identity and dialogue, moderated presentations and discussion involving the two Co-Chairs, Archbishop Peni and the IARCCUM ‘bishop-pair’ from the United States, Bishop John Bauerschmidt of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee and Bishop John Michael Botean of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Eparchy of Canton, Ohio. The evening concluded with a dinner hosted by Dr Tom Banchoff, university Vice-President for Global Engagement, preceded by an address from Revd Dr Kate Sonderegger of Virgina Theological Seminary.
Speaking about the meeting, Dr Christopher Wells, Director for Unity, Faith and Order at the Anglican Communion Office said: “Continuing the work of IARCCUM here at Georgetown, in partnership with VTS, has been a joy. We’re excited to be updating ‘Growing Together in Unity and Mission’, which remains a profound text. We want to add more about how our communions are changing and what we are learning to say about synodality and the character of ecumenical commitment as it shapes our ecclesial identities. For Anglicans, certainly, there is no unity or mission without our Roman Catholic—and other—Christian friends. As we learn to understand why this is so, our internal divisions in the Anglican Communion also start to look different.”
