by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
On Monday, November 20, I addressed the members of the Catholic and Anglican communities of St Francis RC and St Margaret’s Anglican Church, Belmont, at a service organised by Fr Thomas Lawson OP and Rev Canon Ronald Branche, to remember the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. I share below extracts from my presentation. The music of GRACE Music Ministry was spiritually uplifting.
“We come together to heal and to build unity in Christ, our Lord. October 31, 2017 marked 500 years since Martin Luther, a university lecturer and Augustinian monk posted on the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany, his 95 Theses – a list of criticisms of the Catholic Church’s doctrines and practices at that time e.g. he objected to the highly profitable sale of indulgences.
This was seen as a way of gaining remission for some types of sins by buying one’s way out of punishment. One could shorten one’s time in purgatory by purchasing a letter of “indulgence” from one’s local parish. This led to some corrupt practices. (Note that in 1567 Pope Pius V abolished the sale of indulgences).
Luther also posited that justification/the doctrine of salvation was by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. He believed that avoiding hell and gaining admission to heaven was an issue between an individual and God, and that there could be no mediation by the Church. The Catholic Church’s theology is that justification/salvation is a life-long process conditioned by faith – baptism/the sacraments – and good works (see Matthew 25).
Luther’s theses sought to reform the Church. Instead, his stance led to a schism/split in Western Christianity, the outcome of which was the birth of the Reformation and Protestantism. Today there are thousands of Christian denominations.
Luther was condemned by the Catholic Church as a heretic; was excommunicated in 1521 and his writings were banned. The split led to hundreds of years of widespread bloodshed, religious wars, destruction of churches/monasteries, religious art. Thousands were hung, drawn and quartered or burnt at the stake for their religion – on both sides.
In this presentation, I will focus mainly on the effects of the reformation on the Anglican and Catholic Church. The “birth” of the Anglican Church is as a result of action by King Henry VIII of England who, in 1527, asked to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled. He wanted to marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope refused to grant it.
In 1534 King Henry created the Church of England and named himself as its spiritual and political leader. It must be noted that the birth of the Anglican Church took place during the period when the Reformation had already commenced.
The titular leader of the Anglican Church is the Monarch. Anglicans reject the concepts of:
– the primacy of the Pope. Like other Protestants, Anglicans believe that the Bible is the only source of theological and moral authority;
– Papal infallibility (see Catechism: 888–892) – the Holy Father is infallible when teaching as Pastor and Doctor of all Christians, and by virtue of his apostolic authority, ex cathedra, i.e. “from the Chair”, on matters of faith and morals. The Anglican Church rejects this doctrine;
– Marian dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary;
– Transubstantiation. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the life of a Catholic. The Catholic Church teaches that during the Eucharistic celebration/Holy Mass, once the priest consecrates the bread and wine they are changed into the body and blood of Christ. Para 1377 of our Catechism states: “The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist. Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.”
The manner in which the change occurs, the Catholic Church teaches, is a mystery: “The signs of bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of Christ.” (CCC1333). Anglicans do not believe this. They believe that during the Lord’s Supper those who take the bread and wine in faith, receive Christ in a heavenly and spiritual manner.
Non-Catholics may not participate in Communion. In the Anglican Church, every baptised person is invited to share and is allowed to lead the Lord’s Supper.
The status of women in the hierarchy of the Anglican Church is another key difference between the two denominations e.g. women in the Anglican Church have been ordained priests and bishops.
Over the past 50 years, there have been ecumenical efforts. Pope Francis has made ecumenism a hallmark of his papacy. Both Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, have apologised for the violence that followed the Protestant Reformation. I agree with them that there is much in our history for which we should ask God’s/ each other’s forgiveness.
On October 31, 2016, Pope Francis and Munib Younan, president of the Lutheran World Federation, signed a joint declaration at an ecumenical prayer service in Lund, Sweden, commemorating the schism.
Inter alia, the Declaration states: “Through dialogue and shared witness we are no longer strangers. Rather, we have learned that what unites us is greater than what divides us. While we are profoundly thankful for the spiritual and theological gifts received through the Reformation, we also confess and lament before Christ that Lutherans and Catholics have wounded the visible unity of the church. Theological differences were accompanied by prejudice and conflicts, and religion was instrumentalised for political ends… We emphatically reject all hatred and violence, past and present, especially that expressed in the name of religion.”
On January 17, 2017, the UK Guardian published a moving article entitled: ‘C of E Archbishops call on Christians to repent for Reformation split’. In it the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, recalled “the lasting damage done five centuries ago to the unity of the Church, in defiance of the clear command of Jesus Christ to unity in love…Those turbulent years saw Christian people pitted against each other, such that many suffered persecution and even death at the hands of others claiming to know the same Lord.”
They called on all Christians “to repent of our part in perpetuating divisions. Such repentance needs to be linked to action aimed at reaching out to other churches and strengthening relationships with them.”
Rev Canon Ronald Branche (left), Leela Ramdeen, and Fr Thomas Lawson. Photo: Christopher Phillip.
On October 30, 2017, Archbishop Welby wrote a comment in the Evening Standard. As the Anglican News reported, he spoke of the pain caused by the broken communion between Christians brought about as a result of the Protestant Reformation. He wrote about a recent Communion service he attended at the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral, led by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols.
He said: “Because of the events of the Reformation and the history since, it remains impossible for Anglicans and Roman Catholics to receive communion together, at that solemn moment in the service I lined up at the front with everyone else. But because I could not put my hands out for the bread and wine, I knelt down to be prayed for by Cardinal Nichols. He took my hand and lifted me to my feet. Both of us had tears in our eyes. We are the closest of friends, and being reminded of the divisions in the global Church pains us both very deeply.”
But there is hope. This year’s theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, was: Reconciliation – The love of Christ compels us (2 Cor 5:14–20). We are all the Body of Christ, let us work towards healing and unity. The words in the Declaration signed by Pope Francis and Bishop Munib Yunan in Sweden on October 31, 2016 apply to us also: “Rather than conflicts of the past, God’s gift of unity among us shall guide cooperation and deepen our solidarity. By drawing close in faith to Christ, by praying together, by listening to one another, by living Christ’s love in our relationships, we…open ourselves to the power of the Triune God. Rooted in Christ and witnessing to him, we renew our determination to be faithful heralds of God’s boundless love for all humanity.”
I end with the words of Pope Francis to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, at a meeting on June 16, 2014: “The Lord’s question – ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ (Mk 9:33) – might also apply to us. When Jesus put this question to his disciples they were silent; they were ashamed, for they had been arguing about who was the greatest among them. We too feel ashamed when we ponder the distance between the Lord’s call and our meagre response.
Beneath his merciful gaze, we cannot claim that our division is anything less than a scandal and an obstacle to our proclaiming the Gospel of salvation to the world. Our vision is often blurred by the cumulative burden of our divisions and our will is not always free of that human ambition which can accompany even our desire to preach the Gospel as the Lord commanded (cf. Mt 28:19)…The goal of full unity may seem distant indeed, it remains the aim which should direct our every step along the way…Our progress towards full communion will not be the fruit of human actions alone, but a free gift of God.
The Holy Spirit gives us the strength not to grow disheartened and he invites us to trust fully in the power of his works…let us look with confidence to the future. The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission represent especially significant forums for examining, in a constructive spirit, older and newer challenges to our ecumenical engagement.”
Just to let you know that in the 1980s the late Cardinal Basil Hume appointed me to English ARC and I truly valued the discussions we had over the years. I was also the Vice-Chair of an organisation he had established: The Cardinal’s Continuing Committee for the Caribbean Community (C5). He was C5’s Chair.
May God’s gift of unity guide us and strengthen our solidarity. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will help us to remove whatever obstacles stand in our way to unity. I end with a reading from 2 Corinthians 5:14–20.
“For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. May God bless us all.”
