The Roman Catholic Church is open to the possibility of a third round of ARCIC, the Anglican Roman Catholic International Consultation, after the final paper of ARCIC II, Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ is released May 16 in Seattle. A communiqué dated April 27 from the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity [PCPCU] based its conclusion in light of the recommendations of the Windsor Report and a recent meeting of Anglican primates.

In signaling its willingness to resume bilateral talks, the PCPCU cited with approval the Windsor Report and the communiqué from the primates’ meeting last February in Northern Ireland. "These developments affirm the general thrust and conclusions of the understanding of the nature of the Church put forward in the ARCIC dialogue to this point, and that this provides a foundation for continued dialogue and ecumenical co-operation."

The consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire by Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold jeopardized the ongoing work of ARCIC, challenging its 1994 Agreed Statement, Life in Christ: Morals, Communion and the Church.

Life in Christ (87) noted: "Both our communions affirm the importance and significance of human friendship and affection among men and women, whether married or single. Both affirm that all persons, including those of homosexual orientation, are made in the divine image and share the full dignity of human creatureliness. Both affirm that a faithful and lifelong marriage between a man and a woman provides the normative context for a fully sexual relationship. Both appeal to scripture and the natural order as the sources of their teaching on this issue."

The statement went on to say, however, both churches "reject, therefore, the claim sometimes made, that homosexual relationships and married relationships are morally equivalent, and equally capable of expressing the right ordering and use of the sexual drive. Such ordering and use, we believe, are an essential aspect of life in Christ."

While noting a common moral teaching on homosexual relationships, Life in Christ did distinguish between the churches’ pastoral responses to the question.

"Roman Catholic teaching holds that homosexual activity is ‘intrinsically disordered,’ and concludes that it is always objectively wrong. This affects the kind of pastoral advice that is given to homosexual persons. Anglicans could agree that such activity is disordered; but there may well be differences among them in the consequent moral and pastoral advice they would think it right to offer to those seeking their counsel and direction," the document concluded.

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