Farewell to Ecumenism

What a favour Pope Benedict XVI has done for Protestants in the Anglican Communion!  Just this week he has announced a new Roman Catholic legal framework to receive the many thousands of Anglicans and former Anglicans who wish to enter into full visible communion with the Roman Catholic Church.  These Anglicans, known historically as Anglo-Catholics, have received the news with great delight.  They're not the only ones.  Theologically liberal Anglicans will welcome the departure of a major obstacle to their unscriptural agenda of women bishops and gay clergy.  Evangelical Protestants within the Anglican Communion should also welcome the departure of a group that has for a long time distorted the true nature of Anglicanism.

 But Pope Benedict's bombshell is to be welcomed for another reason.  It has exposed the futility of the ecumenical movement.  At one fell stroke, this papal announcement from the Vatican has underlined how little has been the real committment of the Roman Catholic Church to 'agreed statements' and a common theological ground sought for by ecumenists in the Anglican and Roman folds.   This week's offer to the worldwide Anglican Communion has completely undercut all their efforts.  More than that, it has highlighted the fact that full visible union of the two denominations can only be on Rome's terms and the sooner Anglicans realize that the better. 

From a theological point of view the ecumenical endeavour is over.  Evangelicals have always held that there is no squaring the theological circle.  Rome insists on full acceptance of and obedience to its doctrines, while Evangelicals right from the beginning of the Reformation have always called on Rome to purify itself of its unscriptural accretions and get back to the unadulterated biblical Gospel.  Pope Benedict's announcement has effectively ended ecumenism as a theological endeavour to find common ground.  The only future for theology within ecumenism is to prepare the way for acceptance of Roman Catholic dogma.

From a practical point of view Protestant and Catholic clergy and their people will, and should, continue to work together on common problems that affect their local communities, for example, suicide, drug and alcohol addictions, unemployment and other social problems.  However, this 'practical ecumenism' has nothing to do with the now-discredited task of 'theological ecumenism'.  Evangelicals will continue to participate in this 'practical ecumenism' but maintain that the the only sure ground for theological unity is in submitting to the authority of the biblical Gospel rather than the false teachings of Rome.

So, the Pope has done Evangelical Protestants a big favour in his invitation to Anglo-Catholics.   Can he do the same for us with the theologically liberal Anglicans?