Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei 941

faith, one baptism'.1 Our communion is therefore strengthened by such legi-

timate diversity, and so we are happy that these men and women bring with

them their particular contributions to our common life of faith."

Background information

Since the sixteenth century, when King Henry VIII declared the Church

in England independent of Papal Authority, the Church of England has

created its own doctrinal confessions, liturgical books, and pastoral practices,

often incorporating ideas from the Reformation on the European continent.

The expansion of the British Empire, together with Anglican missionary

work, eventually gave rise to a world-wide Anglican Communion.

Throughout the more than 450 years of its history the question of the

reunification of Anglicans and Catholics has never been far from mind. In the

mid-nineteenth century the Oxford Movement (in England) saw a rekindling

of interest in the Catholic aspects of Anglicanism. In the early twentieth

century Cardinal Mercier of Belgium entered into well publicized conversa-

tions with Anglicans to explore the possibility of union with the Catholic

Church under the banner of an Anglicanism "reunited but not absorbed."

At the Second Vatican Council hope for union was further nourished when

the Decree on Ecumenism,2 referring to communions separated from the

Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation, stated that: "Among those

in which Catholic traditions and institutions in part continue to exist, the

Anglican Communion occupies a special place."

Since the Council, Anglican-Roman Catholic relations have created a

much improved climate of mutual understanding and cooperation. The An-

glican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) produced a series

of doctrinal statements over the years in the hope of creating the basis for full

and visible unity. For many in both communions, the ARCIC statements

provided a vehicle in which a common expression of faith could be recog-

nized. It is in this framework that this new provision should be seen.

In the years since the Council, some Anglicans have abandoned the

tradition of conferring Holy Orders only on men by calling women to

the priesthood and the episcopacy. More recently, some segments of the

Anglican Communion have departed from the common biblical teaching on

1 4:5. 2 N. 13.