International journal for the Study of the Christian

Church

ISSN: 1474-225X (Print) 1747-0234 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjsc20

A comparison of the ecclesiological doctrine of

Vatican II with Faith and Order's convergence text
The Church: Towards a Common Vision

William Henn OFM Cap.

To cite this article: William Henn OFM Cap. (2014) A comparison of the ecclesiological
doctrine of Vatican II with Faith and Order's convergence text The�Church:�Towards�a�Common
Vision, International journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 14:4, 388-402, DOI:
10.1080/1474225X.2014.981991

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1474225X.2014.981991

Published online: 16 Feb 2015.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 176

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Citing articles: 1 View citing articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rjsc20
International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 2014
Vol. 14, No. 4, 388–402, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1474225X.2014.981991

A comparison of the ecclesiological doctrine of Vatican II with Faith

and Order’s convergence text The Church: Towards a Common Vision
William Henn OFM Cap.

Faith and Order’s important new convergence text on ecclesiology was published in
2013, 50 years after the discussions in 1963, at the second session of Vatican II,
which produced the council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen
gentium, the following year. After acknowledging some of the pitfalls in comparing
a conciliar teaching with an ecumenical convergence text, this article summarises
the content of the new ecumenical text on ecclesiology, indicates points of
agreement with Vatican II’s teaching and proposes that The Church: Towards a
Common Vision might be seen as reflecting a hierarchy of ecclesiological truths
which provides a promising framework for seeking greater agreement about still
divisive issues.
Keywords: ecumenical dialogue; ecclesiology; Faith and Order; Vatican II;
convergence text; Lumen gentium; The Church: Towards a Common Vision

On the island of Penang, Malaysia, late in the afternoon of 21 June [2012], the Faith and Order
Standing Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC) accepted by consensus The
Church: Towards a Common Vision. . . . After the Commission signalled its unanimous
assent [ . . . ], the members stood and sang the Taizé chant, Laudate omnes gentes. The
moderator of the commission, Metropolitan Dr. Vasilios of Constantia-Ammochostos,
thanked God ‘that we have come to this important moment. This event does not happen often
in Faith and Order. It happened in 1982 with Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. It just
happened again’.1
Those who are familiar with the historic importance of the 1982 Lima document, to which
Metropolitan Vasilios here makes reference, will immediately recognise the significance
that he was attributing to this new statement about the Church. Not surprisingly, the
‘Preface’ to The Church: Towards a Common Vision claims that the convergence reached
therein ‘represents an extraordinary ecumenical achievement’.2 Its publication nearly
coincides with the 50th anniversary of Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,
Lumen gentium. The then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger opened one of his reflections on its
ecclesiology by observing that the overwhelming majority of responses to John XXIII’s
survey prior to the council indicated that its most urgent task would be to offer a

1
‘Faith and Order Commission Approves New Theological Agreement’. From http://ecumenism.
net/2012/07/wcc_fo_commission_approves_new_theological_agreement.htm; the website of the
World Council of Churches (accessed September 10, 2014). Hereafter the Faith and Order document,
Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry will be referred to as BEM.
2
Faith and Order Commission, The Church, viii. That many international bilateral dialogues have
taken up ecclesiological themes is illustrated by Kasper’s Harvesting the Fruits, the lion’s share of
which is devoted to ecclesiological topics.

q 2014 Taylor & Francis

 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 389

comprehensive vision of the Church.3 It seems opportune, then, to take a look at how the
themes of the new ecumenical convergence statement might compare with the
ecclesiological doctrine of Vatican II. The first section of what follows will note some
important differences to be kept in mind when comparing the teaching of Vatican II with
the results of an ecumenical dialogue. The longest, second section will follow the outline
and content of the new ecumenical convergence text, so as to identify points of agreement
and of contrast with the council’s teaching. A short final section will reflect upon how the
Faith and Order study could contribute to preparing for greater communion among the
churches.

I. Comparing apples and oranges?

Conventional wisdom advises caution whenever one compares two objects that have some
fundamental differences. While both the bishops participating in Vatican II and the
members of the Faith and Order Commission worked to formulate a vision of the Church
which their participants could all share, some overall differences between the Council and
the Commission need to be acknowledged from the outset.

Intention
The intention of the council, according to John XXIII’s opening address, was not to
proclaim some new teaching but to restate the Church’s self-understanding in terms which
were more meaningful and attractive to people today.4 This showed a refreshing
sensitivity to the historicity of the Church and to her understanding and expression of
revealed truth. While the bishops brought various ecclesiological emphases to their task,
as the vigorous discussions during the conciliar discussions demonstrate, they could
presume a level of agreement about the Church which could not be presumed by a
dialogue commission. The bishops’ intention was to update the formulation of their
commonly shared Catholic faith. The intention of the Faith and Order Commission, on the
other hand, was to produce a ‘convergence text’, that is, ‘a text which, while not
expressing full consensus on all the issues considered, is much more than simply an
instrument to stimulate further study. Rather the following pages express how far Christian
communities have come in their common understanding of the Church, showing the
progress that has been made and indicating work that still needs to be done’.5 The initial
impetus for setting in motion the work that produced The Church: Towards a Common
Vision came from the process of responding to BEM, Faith and Order’s earlier

3
Ratzinger, ‘Intervento’. The original Italian text can be found at the following website: http://
www.doctrinafidei.va/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000227_ratzinger-lumen-gentium_it.html
(accessed August 28, 2014).
4
John XXIII, ‘Solenne apertura’, stated that, remaining faithful to the certain and unchangeable
teaching of the past, the Church must express that teaching in a way that better corresponded to the
needs of our time. The Italian word aggiornamento (updating) was used to convey this intention. For
the original Italian version of this opening speech, see: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_
xxiii/speeches/1962/documents/hf_j-xxiii_spe_19621011_opening-council_it.html (accessed
August 29, 2014).
5
From the ‘Introduction’ to Faith and Order Commission, The Church, 1. On the topic of consensus,
see the excellent entry by Vischer, ‘Consensus’, and for a recent examination of the goal sought by
ecumenical dialogues, see Hietamääki, Agreeable Agreement.
390 W. Henn

convergence document. The final pages of a report on these responses by more than 150
churches concluded:
The search for Christian unity implies the search for common ecumenical perspectives on
ecclesiology. This need is strongly underlined by the analysis of the responses to BEM which
reveal many different presuppositions but also convergences regarding the nature of the
Church. [ . . . ] Such an ecclesiology in an ecumenical perspective [ . . . ] requires the search for
basic ecclesiological principles, which could provide common perspectives for the churches’
different ecclesiologies and serve as a framework for their convergence.6
The report went on to list the following convergences that could profitably be taken up for
further study: the role of the Church in God’s saving purpose; koinonia (communion); the
Church as a creation of the Word of God (creatura verbi); the Church as mystery or
sacrament of God’s love for the world; the Church as the pilgrim people of God; and the
Church as prophetic sign and servant of God’s coming kingdom.7

Process
The remote preparation for Vatican II’s doctrine concerning the Church is found in the
various movements of biblical, patristic and liturgical ressourcement which marked
the decades prior to the Council, as well as the largely unofficial Catholic experience of the
ecumenical movement.8 More proximately, this process stemmed from the initial
consultation of the bishops and academic institutions from around the world to the
preparation of initial drafts, to the debate and extensive revision of the prepared texts and
to their ultimate acceptance and promulgation during the last three sessions of Vatican II.
The actual drafting of the various conciliar documents occurred largely within a period of
four years. The remote preparation behind The Church: Towards a Common Vision can
also be traced to several decades, as the fine ‘Historical Note’ appended to the text makes
clear.9 But its actual drafting took quite a bit longer than that of the documents of Vatican
II:
For twenty years, the delegated representatives of the Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican,
Evangelical, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic churches in a World Conference on Faith and
Order (1993), three Plenary Commissions on Faith and Order (1996, 2004, 2009), eighteen
meetings of the Standing Commission, and countless drafting meetings have sought to
uncover a global, multilateral and ecumenical vision of the nature, purpose and mission of the
Church. The churches have responded critically and constructively to two earlier stages on the
way to a common statement. The Commission on Faith and Order [now] responds to the
Churches with The Church: Towards a Common Vision, its common – or convergence –
statement on ecclesiology.10

6
Faith and Order Commission, Baptism, Eucharist & Ministry 1982– 1990.
7
Cf. Ibid., 148– 51.
8
Commenting on some of the more prominent proponents of ressourcement, such as Yves Congar
and Henri de Lubac, Christopher Ruddy writes: ‘ . . . they shared a belief that only a comprehensive
recovery of the breadth and depth of the Christian tradition could provide the resources for an
effective engagement with, and evangelisation of, the modern world; ressourcement, in other words,
drives aggiornamento’; from Ruddy, ‘Ressourcement and the Enduring Legacy of Post-Tridentine
Theology’, 186– 7. Fascinating accounts of pre-Vatican II Catholic involvement in ecumenism can
be found in Velati, Una difficile transizione and Ernesti and Thönissen, Die Entdeckung der
Ökumene.
9
See Faith and Order Commission, The Church, 41 –6.
10
From the ‘Preface’ to Faith and Order Commission, The Church, viii.
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 391

Results
The doctrine of Vatican II, as the explanatory note appended to Lumen gentium points out,
represents the teaching of ‘the supreme magisterium of the Church’.11 Moreover, the
council’s teaching about the Church is not limited to what is found in Lumen gentium.
In varying degrees all 16 conciliar documents contain some ecclesiological content. The very
extensive amount of material has led theologians to produce many expositions of the
ecclesiology of Vatican II. In addition, sharp differences of opinion have emerged
concerning the correct way of interpreting the council.12 For its part, The Church: Towards a
Common Vision is not the official teaching of any particular Christian community. Whatever
authority it may have derives from the cogency of its presentation and argumentation.
Moreover, because it seeks to include as many participants as possible in the quest for greater
convergence, it cannot take a firm stand on questions about which Christians are still sharply
divided. In comparing it with Vatican II’s doctrine, one must expect that the Faith and Order
text will have a much greater incidence of open questions and, in that sense, of provisionality.

II. Resonance and dissonance: comparing Faith and Order’s The Church with
Vatican II
The short ‘Introduction’ to The Church makes two affirmations which are important for an
accurate comparison between it and the ecclesiological teaching of Vatican II. First of all, it
begins with words from the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Thy will be done’. This suggests that the
ecclesiological reflections that follow are an attempt to express what God intended the Church
to be. Thus, right from the start, The Church sets out the conviction that God’s design for the
Church includes at least some particular elements of faith and order which would be essential
to her structure and life. Excluded is the view that the Christian community is of completely
human origin and could take whatever form a particular group of believers might choose to
adopt. Such a concern is prominent in Vatican II and within Catholic ecclesiology generally.
Not only does the council note, in Unitatis redintegratio (UR 1), that division ‘openly
contradicts the will of Christ’, but the opening chapters of Lumen gentium (LG) and of Ad
gentes (AG) underline God’s will for the Church. The Father ‘determined to call together in a
holy Church’ (LG 2); ‘to carry out his will Christ inaugurated the kingdom’ (LG 3); ‘when the
work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth (cf. John 17.4) was accomplished, the Holy
Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that he might continually sanctify the Church’
(LG 4). The opening chapter of the decree on the missionary activity of the Church states: ‘The
reason for missionary activity lies in the will of God, “who wishes all men to be saved and to
come to the knowledge of the truth . . . ” (1 Tim. 2.4)’ (AG 7).
This quest to uncover and obey God’s will regarding the Church is taken up again in
The Church, paragraphs 11– 12, which claim that all Christians hold Scripture to be
normative. While not proposing any ‘systematic ecclesiology’, the New Testament is filled

11
This note is printed in Flannery, Vatican Council II, 423– 4, right after the text of LG itself.
12
See Routhier, ‘Deuxième Partie’. Part II of Madrigal’s Unas lecciones sobre el Vaticano II y su
legado, sees the multivolume accounts of Vatican II respectively under the editorship of Alberigo,
Storia del concilio Vaticano II, in five volumes, or of Hünermann and Hilberath, Herders theologischer
Kommentar zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil, in five volumes, as reflecting the two currently
dominant approaches to the interpretation of Vatican II, that of Alberigo emphasising the
understanding of the council as an event whose significance goes beyond its texts, while that of
Hünermann and Hilberath insists upon giving primacy to the texts and to the questions to which they
were responding.
392 W. Henn

with images and accounts which have relevance for our understanding of God’s will for
the Church. Subsequent reflection about Scripture over the centuries has produced a
wealth of ecclesiological insights. Here the Faith and Order convergence quotes its earlier
ground-breaking study ‘Scripture, Tradition and Traditions’, which explained how
Scripture and tradition are mutually and positively interrelated. Both Vatican II and The
Church are replete with biblical references; both draw upon the tradition. The fact that the
new Faith and Order text explicitly commits itself to the discerning of God’s will for the
Church is a significant contribution of this new convergence statement.
A second affirmation of the introduction that is helpful in comparing the Faith and
Order convergence with the ecclesiological doctrine of Vatican II is the description of its
structure:
The Church: Towards a Common Vision opens with a chapter exploring how the Christian
community finds its origin in the mission of God for the saving transformation of the world.
The Church is essentially missionary, and unity is essentially related to this mission. The
second chapter sets out the salient features of an understanding of the Church as Communion,
gathering the results of much common reflection both about how Scripture and subsequent
tradition relate the Church to God and some of the consequences of this relation for the life
and structure of the Church. The third chapter focuses upon the growth of the Church as the
pilgrim people moving toward the kingdom of God, especially upon several difficult
ecclesiological questions that have divided the churches in the past. It registers the progress
toward greater convergence about some of these issues and clarifies points about which
churches may need to seek further convergence. The fourth chapter develops several
significant ways in which the Church relates to the world as a sign and agent of God’s love,
such as proclaiming Christ within an interreligious context, witnessing to the moral values of
the Gospel and responding to human suffering and need.13
Obviously, the four chapters described above do not correspond to any particular
document of Vatican II. The structure of Lumen gentium was primarily the consequence of
the decision to simplify De ecclesia into four chapters governed largely by the principal
vocations or states of life (Church as Mystery; the hierarchy; the laity; the religious) and
the decision to include the council’s teaching about Mary within the constitution on the
Church.14 Faith and Order did not take the vocations of individual believers as its point of
departure. That being said, there are striking parallels between The Church’s four chapters
and ecclesiological themes scattered through Lumen gentium and other conciliar texts, as
the following paragraphs will attempt to show.
Chapter one of The Church is entirely new when compared with the earlier two stages
of Faith and Order’s ecclesiology project, to which churches throughout the world had
been asked to respond.15 Why was it added? The aim was to begin in a more dynamic and

13
Faith and Order Commission, The Church, 2.
14
It is well known that, as the bishops worked on the four-chapter draft discussed in the second
session (1963), part of the chapter on the laity became a new second chapter on the people of God,
while part of the chapter on religious became the chapter on the universal call to holiness. The new
chapter on Mary called for a bridge chapter on the relation of the earthly, pilgrim Church to the
celestial Church in glory. These developments account for the structure of eight chapters that Lumen
gentium finally acquired.
15
The first of these two preliminary texts was entitled The Nature and Purpose of the Church (1998)
and was based upon the eight ecclesiological convergences that appeared during the process of
responding to BEM. Reactions to Nature and Purpose informed a revision entitled The Nature and
Mission of the Church (2005). The churches were then asked to evaluate how well their suggestions
had been heeded during these two stages, leading finally to the convergence statement here under
consideration, The Church: Towards a Common Vision (2013).
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 393

contextual way, to root the very being of the Church in the activity of the Triune God in
creating human beings in his own image and destining them for communion in God’s
kingdom. Once that design was obstructed by sin, redemption was accomplished through
the incarnation and paschal mystery of Jesus Christ and through the sending of the Holy
Spirit. The accent is placed fully upon the divine initiative. God is the primary actor in
each of the seven densely theological sentences of the opening paragraph. The origin
of the Church is then located in Jesus’ final words to his disciples in Acts and in the
four Gospels (paragraph 2), while the very raison d’être of the life of the Christian
community is to continue the mission which Jesus carried out and shared with his body,
the Church, sending the Holy Spirit to equip her with the gifts needed for this task
(paragraphs 3– 4).16
The chapter goes on to affirm that the basic activities of proclaiming the Word of the
gospel, celebrating the new life in Christ and the Spirit, especially through baptism and
Eucharist, and forming Christian communities of service under the guidance of apostolic
leaders, have always been essential to the Church’s mission (5). These have been exercised
amidst an incredible diversity of times and cultures over the course of history, resulting in
a wealth of variety among local communities. Failures and scandals caused by human
frailty, such as the sometime complicity of missionaries in the evils of colonialism, are not
overlooked (6). Also some of the new challenges to mission today are indicated –
religious pluralism, vast improvements in the means of communication, secularism,
decline in membership, the emergence of non-denominational ‘super-churches’ and so
forth – developments which have to be faced by all those who have been involved in the
ecumenical movement up to the present time (7). Finally, the undeniable importance of
unity for the credibility and effectiveness of the Church’s mission is shown to be
acknowledged already in the New Testament (8 – 10).
Several aspects of this first chapter of The Church resonate very well with the
ecclesiological doctrine of Vatican II. In his assessment of that doctrine cited above,
Joseph Ratzinger proposed the following as his ‘basic thesis’: ‘ . . . the Second Vatican
Council clearly wanted to speak of the Church within the discourse on God, to subordinate
the discourse on the Church to the discourse on God and to offer an ecclesiology that
would be theo-logical in a true sense’.17 Early passages from each of the council’s four
constitutions seem to confirm this theological interpretation.
God who ‘wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1 Tim. 2:4) . . .
when the fullness of time had come sent his Son, the Word made flesh, anointed by the Holy
Spirit to preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the contrite of heart, to be a bodily and spiritual
medicine: the Mediator between God and man (SC 5).
The eternal Father, in accordance with the utterly gratuitous and mysterious design of his
wisdom and goodness, created the whole universe, and chose to raise up men to share in his
own divine life . . . . (LG 2).
It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom to reveal himself and to make known the mystery
of his will (cf. Eph. 1.9) (Dei verbum 1).
The people of God believes that it is led by the Spirit of the Lord who fills the whole world.
Moved by that faith it tries to discern in the events, the needs and the longings which it shares

16
Henceforth, numbers within parentheses which are not preceded by the abbreviation of a document
from Vatican II will refer to the paragraphs of Faith and Order Commission, The Church: Towards a
Common Vision.
17
Ratzinger, talk of February 27, 2000, cited in note 3 above.
394 W. Henn

with other men of our time, what may be genuine signs of the presence or the purpose of God
(Gaudium et spes 11).
Such a placing of its discourse on the Church within a discourse on God is unmistakable in
the new Faith and Order text and is of inestimable value since it situates our common
vision of the Church within the context of the foundations of the Christian faith. Dialogue
about specific issues such as the number of the sacraments or a ministry of primacy can
then be taken up within the framework of a common understanding of the Church as rooted
in the love of the Triune God for humankind. Such a framework offers greater promise for
reaching agreement about what is yet divisive.
Another important theme from Vatican II, present in chapter one of the Faith and Order
convergence text, concerns the essential missionary nature of the Church (implied in LG
1– 5, 9, 17 but very explicit in AG 2– 9) and the welcome and enriching variety of the local
churches that results from that mission (LG 13 and 23; UR 14– 17; AG 19– 22). Naturally
the relatively short Faith and Order text could not develop this topic to the same extent as it
was during the council, where the bishops had the luxury of devoting an entire decree to
the Church’s missionary activity. Nevertheless, the fact that The Church begins by
situating the very nature of the Church within the missio Dei profoundly resonates with
Vatican II and was the direct consequence of the input of the churches in responding to the
two earlier published stages of Faith and Order’s ecclesiological project in 1998 and
2005.18
The second chapter of The Church presents some important ecclesiological
convictions about which many churches today are united. These convictions are based
upon Scripture, although some pertinent testimony from witnesses such as patristic writers
or ecumenical councils is also cited. The chapter unfolds in four sections: ‘The Church of
the Triune God as Koinonia’, ‘The Church as Sign and Servant of God’s Design for the
World’, ‘Communion in Unity and Diversity’ and ‘Communion of Local Churches’. Each
of these four subdivisions emphasises that the Church is an effective means of communion
with God and among human beings (13), which dovetails with Lumen gentium’s famous
description of the Church as ‘a sign and instrument of communion with God and of unity
among all people’ (LG 1).
The first of these subdivisions claims that the initiative of the Word and the Spirit give
birth to the Church (14 and 16), in which context Mary is seen as a model for all believers
in her reception of the Word in faith and her openness to the work of the Spirit in her life
(15). Such a consideration of Mary within the framework of God’s initiative in
establishing the Church resonates well with the council’s decision to include its Marian
doctrine within an ecclesiological setting. The heading ‘The Prophetic, Priestly and Royal
People of God’ relates the Church to Israel (17), emphasises the responsibility of all
believers to participate in the life and mission of the community (18), describes the
interrelation between those who are ordained and the other faithful (19) and quotes BEM
on the essential tasks of the ordained as ‘a ministry of word, sacrament and oversight’ (20).
This resonates well with Vatican II, where the triad prophet-priest-king is a fundamental
structuring principle of chapters III and IV of Lumen gentium. Paragraph 21 of The Church
nicely integrates the two biblical images of the Church as Body of Christ and Temple of
the Holy Spirit, while the section commenting on the four notae ecclesiae of the
Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (one, holy, catholic and apostolic) sees them not only as
gifts originating in God’s initiative but also as tasks that believers have not always

18
See the ‘Historical Note’ appended to Faith and Order Commission, The Church, 44 – 6.
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 395

faithfully brought to realisation (22). Taken together, these paragraphs (13 – 22) lead to the
conclusion that the Church is not simply the sum of believers but is, as the fruit of divine
initiative, ‘both a divine and a human reality’ (23). Here emerges an important theme for
further dialogue: Christian communities differ in their understanding of how the divine
initiative by the Holy Spirit relates to the human institutional structures and ministerial
order of the Church (24). Are some elements of ecclesial structure so instituted by God that
to alter or remove them would be to go against God’s will? Or might God sanction a
variety of different institutional forms or even no particular form for the Church? Does
faithfulness to the Lord’s design call for institutional continuity or might faithfulness
require change?
The remaining three subdivisions of chapter one of The Church take up three questions
related to the nature of the Church as a communion: may the Church be called a
‘sacrament’ of such communion (25 – 7), how can legitimate diversity be differentiated
from that diversity which damages communion (28 –30), and how does the local church
maintain communion with other local churches throughout the whole world (31 –2)? Each
of these sections registers some significant convergence. Thus, most seem to agree that the
Church is a means and servant in the hands of God to bring about communion and that God
is the one and only author of salvation. The Church is not for herself but subordinate to her
Lord.19 Given such agreement that the Church serves God’s saving activity, need her
designation as ‘sacrament’ be so problematic? Similarly, most churches would
acknowledge that the Scripture itself countenances and even supports a certain degree
of diversity among local churches. What criteria can be used to distinguish legitimate
diversity and what institutional order is needed to effectively employ such criteria?
Finally, most Christians, even those of communities which give primacy to the local
congregation, would believe that part of the authenticity of the local community is to
maintain communion with other local churches. How can the relation between the local,
the regional and the universal levels of communion be understood and what ministerial
order is needed to maintain such communion?
Sometimes in these sections there are surprising parallels with the ecclesiological
doctrine of Vatican II. For example, paragraph 25, reflecting on the fact that the Church is
sign and servant of God’s plan, acknowledges that God wills the salvation of all people
and, therefore, that God’s grace can touch the hearts of people who are not Christian in
ways known to God alone. The Church rejects nothing of truth and goodness in other
religions, yet ‘the mission of the Church remains that of inviting, through witness and
testimony, all men and women to come to know and love Christ Jesus’. These statements
are practically identical to similar ones found in Lumen gentium, Ad gentes and Nostra
aetate. Of course the bishops at Vatican II could have much greater consensus about such
matters as the sacramental nature of the Church, the means of identifying differences that
violate communion and the relations between local, regional and universal levels of
ecclesial life than would be possible in Faith and Order’s convergence text. Nevertheless it
is very helpful that this ecumenical statement identifies these disputed issues and invites
further dialogue about them.

19
Years ago, during Faith and Order’s work on the study document Church and World, Günther
Gassmann, a Lutheran theologian and then director of the Commission, pointed out that the notion of
‘Church as sacrament’ could appeal to Protestants insofar as it emphasised that the Church is not an
end in itself but an instrument in service to the salvific action of God. See Gassmann, ‘The Church as
Sacrament, Sign and Instrument’.
396 W. Henn

Chapter three entitled ‘The Church: Growing in Communion’ seeks to identify

progress in overcoming ecclesiological tensions among the various churches. The focus is
upon currently divisive issues and, as one would expect, it enjoys less resonance with the
teaching of Vatican II than had the previous chapters. The results of multilateral and
bilateral dialogues predominate as sources for this chapter.
An opening paragraph discusses the eschatological nature of the pilgrim people of
God, in journey through history towards the full realisation of the kingdom under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit (33). Already displaying tangible signs of the new life of the
kingdom, the Church is nevertheless vulnerable to the vicissitudes of time and human
frailty (34). In this context, Faith and Order registers a significant convergence concerning
the holiness of the Church as the body of Christ and the reality of sin among believers. All
Christians acknowledge that Christ shares his victory over sin with the Church, against
which the gates of hell shall not prevail. At the same time all are convinced of the need for
continual repentance, conversion and renewal (35 –6). These paragraphs correspond
nicely to Lumen gentium’s paragraph 5 on the relation of the Church to the kingdom of
God and paragraph 9 on her nature as a pilgrim people. They also resonate with the entire
fifth chapter on the universal vocation to holiness as well as with the affirmation that the
Church is ‘at once holy and always in need of purification’ (LG 8).20 The convergence
registered here demonstrates that reverence for the Church as holy is not incompatible with
insistence on the need for continual reform. In the past, these views were sometimes
opposed in such a way as to contribute to tensions and divisions among Christians.
Having noted this convergence, The Church explores the progress that recent dialogue
has made in what it calls the ‘three essential elements of communion’: faith, sacraments,
ministry, which provide the structure for the remainder of the chapter (37). That these
three categories may serve as an adequate expression of the ‘essential elements of
communion’ is based upon references to many bilateral and multilateral agreed statements
referred to in the longest footnote of the text. A striking coincidence can be seen here with
Vatican II, which highlights these three elements when it speaks about growth in
communion: ‘it is through the faithful preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles and their
successors, . . . through their administration of the sacraments, and through their
governing in love, that Jesus Christ wishes his people to increase, under the action of the
Holy Spirit; and he perfects its fellowship in unity: in the confession of one faith, in the
common celebration of divine worship, and in the fraternal harmony of the family of God’
(UR 2).
The Church recalls widespread agreement that the ‘faith once entrusted to the saints’
(Jude v. 3) must be proclaimed faithfully to successive generations and celebrates the fact
that the Faith and Order study of the Creed, entitled Confessing the One Faith, 1991,
uncovered much consensus on many central aspects of Christian doctrine (38 –9). The
ongoing interpretation of the faith involves the participation of the whole people,
theologians and ordained ministers, points that resonate well with Dei verbum 8, 10, 24
and Lumen gentium 12, 25 and 35. Regarding the sacraments, The Church summarises the
earlier convergences of BEM (40) concerning baptism (41), Eucharist (42) and the social
implications of these sacraments (43). What is said in these paragraphs is in no way
contradicted by the rather brief statements about baptism in Sacrosanctum concilium (SC)
6 or Lumen gentium 10– 11, 14, 31 and 40, or about the Eucharist in Sacrosanctum

20
For Vatican II’s acknowledgement of sinfulness among the members of the holy Church, see
Rahner, ‘Sündige Kirche nach den Dekreten des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils’.
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 397

concilium 47 and Lumen gentium 11. Missing is a reference to the liturgy or the Eucharist
as the source and summit of the life of the Church (SC 10 and LG 11). The novelty of The
Church’s section on sacraments can be seen in its effort to reconcile, on the basis of the
results of recent dialogues, the two often opposed concepts of ‘sacrament’ and ‘ordinance’
(44). Those communities which speak of baptism and the Eucharist as ‘sacraments’
emphasise that God’s saving activity is at work in those rites; those which speak of them as
‘ordinances’ stress that they are performed in obedience to the command of Jesus. But
such emphases need not be seen as incompatible and the proponents of each side can and
often do acknowledge some truth to the position of the other side. The section on
sacraments invites further dialogue about such questions as who may be baptised
(infants?), who may preside (only the ordained?) and the number of the sacraments/
ordinances. For Vatican II, of course, these are not open questions.
The largest section of chapter three of The Church concerns Ministry (45 –57). Some
might object that, as a whole, the convergence text focuses too much on ordained ministry.
However, given the fact that some of the most difficult ecclesiological issues dividing the
Churches concern ordained ministry, one could hardly give it scant treatment. Ministry is
discussed under three headings: ordained ministry (45 – 7), the gift of authority in the
ministry of the Church (48 – 51) and the ministry of oversight [episkopé ] (52 – 7).
The section on ordained ministry notes that, while the New Testament has no single
pattern of ministry and shows a certain freedom in adapting or creating ministries (cf. Acts
6.1 –6), still at a very early point a threefold pattern of bishop, presbyter and deacon was
seen as having its roots in the Scriptures and quickly became the generally accepted
pattern, even though other patterns were adopted by some at the time of the Reformation.
Succession in ministry is meant to serve the apostolicity of the Church (46). Today almost
all churches have a formal structure of ministry which often reflects the threefold pattern
of episkopos-presbyteros-diakonos (47). While all accept the biblical testimony of the
unique priesthood of Jesus Christ, some communities hold that certain ordained ministers
can be called priests, because of their relation to Christ through the sacrament of
ordination; others do not accept such a designation nor that ordination is a sacrament (45).
The churches are invited to continue dialogue about the nature of ordained ministry and
about whether the threefold ministry may reflect God’s will for the Church. The unfolding
of ministerial order from the New Testament into early patristic times can find some
parallel with paragraphs 19– 20 of Lumen gentium’s third chapter, but the way in which
The Church had to leave open for further dialogue such questions as the divine institution
of the threefold ministry, the sacramentality of ordained ministry and the authentic
‘priesthood’ of the ordained is, of course, foreign to the doctrine of Vatican II.
The very positive point of departure for the section on authority is Jesus Christ himself,
with numerous biblical citations indicating the authority he exercised in his ministry and
his sharing of that authority with his apostles and their successors (48). The distinctive
nature of authority in the Church must reflect the one who humbled himself in service (49).
Sources of authority include the Scriptures, tradition, worship, synods and councils;
moreover, the Church has always recognised a certain authority in the holy testimony of
the lives of the saints (50). The authoritative interpretation of the Gospel involves the
collaboration of all in the Church – the whole people with the gift of sensus fidei, those
dedicated in a special way to the study of Scripture and theology and those commissioned
to offer guidance as ordained ministers (51). In the opinion of this commentator, The
Church does a better job than Vatican II in presenting ecclesial authority within the
framework of the humble authority of Jesus, the suffering servant, and of respectful
collaboration by all members of the community in interpreting the Word of God.
398 W. Henn

The final section on ministry concerns oversight or episkopé, a term which recent
ecumenical dialogue has used to convey that type of ministry exercised in some churches
by bishops. Its opening paragraph offers a short description of the ministry of oversight,
claiming that, even when not exercised by an individual who is considered a bishop, still it
is of fundamental importance for maintaining various local churches in continuity with the
apostolic faith and in unity of life (cf. BEM, Ministry 23). This it does through the ministry
of word and sacrament and by fostering mutual support, witness and care for the suffering
among local churches. Oversight is exercised in ways that are personal, collegial and
communal (52). One of the principal achievements of Vatican II was to provide a more
adequate formulation of the nature and role of the episcopacy within official Catholic
teaching. Paragraphs 20 –7 of Lumen gentium include a number of points of contact
between the council and the points just mentioned from the Faith and Order convergence
text, but naturally the treatment of the ministry of the bishop by the council is much more
elaborate than that of a dialogue convergence statement. Especially striking here is
Vatican II’s teaching about episcopal consecration as the fullness of the sacrament of
Orders (LG 21) and the presence of a bishop in apostolic succession as essential for the full
realisation of the local or particular church (LG 23), affirmations that were not possible for
Faith and Order. The Church, paragraph 53, speaks of the conciliarity or synodality of the
Church and of the historic magisterial role of ecumenical councils, inviting churches to
dialogue further so as to achieve consensus about their authority. These points would find
some parallel with Vatican II’s statements about collegiality (LG 22– 3) and about the
magisterium of ecumenical councils (LG 25).
The final four paragraphs of Faith and Order’s treatment of oversight concern a
ministry of primacy. They take the immediately prior treatment of ecumenical councils as
the point of departure for considering the need for someone to preside at such a gathering
(54) and proceed to a brief historical recounting of several salient moments in the
development and exercise of a ministry of primacy (55). The penultimate paragraph
recalls Faith and Order’s call for a study of a ‘universal ministry of Christian unity’ at its
fifth world conference in Santiago de Compostela in 1993 and Pope John Paul II’s
invitation to dialogue about his ministry as successor to Peter (see Ut unum sint 95 –6),
noting that all would hope such a ministry to be exercised in ways that are personal,
collegial and communal (56). Finally, the text notes that much dialogue still needs to be
done on such a ministry of primacy and invites churches to consider whether and how full
communion among all Christians might require such a universal ministry to unity (57).
Vatican II by and large simply reaffirmed Vatican I’s teaching about papal primacy (LG
18), now situating it within the context of the communio ecclesiarum and the college of
bishops (LG 22– 3), taking care that such contextualisation did not abrogate the
fundamental teachings of the earlier council (Nota explicativa praevia).21 Obviously, The
Church can only be much more tentative about a ministry in service to the full communion
of all Christian communities. Nevertheless, the very raising of the question of such a
ministry in a non-polemical way would be seen as gratifying to those who believe that such
a ministry is part of the Lord’s will for the Church.
The fourth chapter of The Church concerning the role of the Christian community in
society has a tone of serenity that this commentator would associate with that similar

21
For the Nota explicativa praevia cf. note 11 above. On the communio ecclesiarum, see the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, The Primacy of the Successor of Peter in the Mystery of
the Church, paragraph 5, referring to LG 18; and Pottmeyer, Towards a Papacy in Communion.
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 399

optimism characteristic of the Life and Work movement and conveyed by the slogan
‘service unites, doctrine divides’. From a general perspective, no Christian community
would have difficulty with, much less deny, the fact that the Church is meant by God to be
at the service of humankind and, like its Lord and Saviour, is ‘to bring glad tidings to the
poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed
go free’ (Luke 4.18 –19). Conflicts over very specific social questions do arise. The Church
leaves aside, for the moment, such very specific issues and comments instead on several of
the more general aspects of the relation of the Church to the world.22
This relation is first placed within the framework of God’s love for the world as proven
in sending his Son (cf. John 3.16) to inaugurate the kingdom of God; the Church is not
meant to serve herself but the kingdom (58). Evangelisation proclaims the Gospel of
reconciliation and healing, which necessarily includes the promotion of justice and peace
(59), but which also must respect the religious freedom of all, something not always done
in the past. Proclaiming ‘the fullness of life in Christ’ should not blind one to the elements
of truth and goodness found in other religions but rather should be ‘an expression of
respectful love’ (60). In today’s context of religious pluralism, churches are invited to seek
greater convergence in harmonising the two biblical teachings that God wills the salvation
of all people (cf. 1 Tim. 2.4) and that Jesus Christ is the one and only Saviour of the world
(cf. 1 Tim. 2.5 and Acts 4.12).
While human beings are saved by grace and not by works, as the important consensus,
celebrated by Lutherans, Catholics and Methodists, on justification by faith has affirmed,23
still there is clearly a moral dimension to discipleship as described in the New Testament
(61). Ecclesial communion includes shared moral values based on the teachings of the
gospel and calls the churches to be mutually accountable in their moral discernment (62),
which has become particularly urgent for ecumenism at the present time, when
philosophical, social and cultural factors have led to the rethinking of many traditional
moral norms (63). Churches are invited to reflect together about what it means to be faithful
to the teaching of Jesus regarding Christian morality and about the role of the Christian
community in witnessing to that morality in society. Paragraph 64 of the Faith and Order
convergence text notes that the Church, in view of God’s immense love for the world, must
commit herself to aiding those who suffer and are oppressed, promote peace and defend
human life and dignity. As such, she will play an active role in civic life, engaging with
political and economic authorities even to the point of critically analysing and exposing
injustices and working for their transformation (65). While including persons of all socio-
economic classes, the Christian community ‘is called and empowered in a special way to
share the lot of those who suffer and to care for the needy and the marginalized’ (66).
As will be clear to the reader, the ecclesiological principles enunciated by chapter four
of The Church bear a striking resemblance to a number of the doctrines of Vatican II, such
as the positive presentation of non-Christian religions in Nostra aetate, the respect for
religious freedom on the basis of the dignity of the human person in Dignitatis humanae
and in the first part of Gaudium et spes and, especially, in the summary of Catholic social
doctrine treated in the second part of Gaudium et spes.

22
Initial work on the task of discerning a gospel response to specific moral issues has been
undertaken recently in the Faith and Order Commission’s Moral Discernment in the Churches.
23
See the ‘Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the Lutheran World Federation and
the Catholic Church’(1999) and ‘The World Methodist Council Statement of Association with the
Joint Declaration on Justification’ (2006).
400 W. Henn

The Church’s short Conclusion is doxological and eschatological, recalling that, in the
liturgy, the faithful experience communion with God and with Christians of all times and
places and are nourished to continue Christ’s compassionate ministry in the struggle
against every form of injustice and oppression (67). ‘The final destiny of the Church is to
be caught up in the koinonia/communion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to be
part of the new creation, praising and rejoicing in God forever (cf. Rev. 21.1– 4; 22.1– 5)’
(68). Faith and Order’s convergence text closes with the words: ‘Christ loves the Church
as the bridegroom loves his bride (cf. Eph. 5.25) and, until the wedding feast of the lamb in
the kingdom of heaven (cf. Rev. 19.7), shares with her his mission of bringing light and
healing to human beings until he comes again in glory’ (69).

III. The Church as an aid towards full communion

Interspersed among the 69 paragraphs of the Faith and Order convergence text are 13
italicised paragraphs which invite the churches to dialogue about issues that remain points
of contention. Some may be disappointed that such topics remain unresolved in a
convergence text that is the fruit of so many years of dialogue. Erin Brigham, in her
analysis of ecumenical dialogue in a post-modern age, argues for the importance of
keeping open the table of discussion for as many dialogue partners as possible, so as not to
exclude those whose absence would be a loss to all.24 The common vision proposed by The
Church seeks to express fundamental points of convergence shared by the large majority
of Christian communities, while the invitational paragraphs recognise that a number of
important issues need to be left open so as not to veil differences that still remain. Not only
inclusiveness but honesty requires that convergence or consensus not be claimed where
they do not yet exist.
One of the important principles of Vatican II regarding ecumenical dialogue states that
‘in Catholic doctrine there exists an order or “hierarchy” of truths, since they vary in their
relation the foundation of the Christian faith’ (UR 11). Might not The Church: Towards a
Common Vision reflect the fact that there also exists a hierarchy of ecclesiological truths?
Christian divisions often originated in mutual condemnations concerning quite specific
issues, usually related more to practice than to doctrine. By situating the origin and raison
d’être of the Church in the eternal design of God in creation and redemption, by relating
her nature to the missio Dei and to the initiative of the three persons of the Trinity, by
elaborating commonly held biblically rooted insights into the reality of the Christian
community as a communion which is a priestly, prophetic and royal people of God, the
body of Christ and temple of the Spirit, by seeing her as a means serving the Father’s plan
of salvation, as including a rich variety which is shared by local communities joined
together with all other such communities in a mission to witness to Christ and to serve the
healing of a broken world – by claiming that all of these affirmations express common
convictions to which the membership of the vast majority of Christian communities are
firmly committed, The Church takes a giant step away from the polemical attitudes which
governed the events causing division in the past.
In his encyclical on ecumenism Ut unum sint, Pope John Paul II wrote:
. . . ecumenical dialogue, which prompts the parties involved to question each other, to
understand each other and to explain their positions to each other, makes surprising
discoveries possible. Intolerant polemics and controversies have made [into] ‘incompatible

24
Brigham, Sustaining the Hope for Unity, 92 – 9, 150– 1.
 International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 401

assertions’ [ . . . ] what was really the result of two different ways of looking at the same
reality. (par. 38)
Faith and Order’s mandate, as it began the 20-year project which led to the publication of
The Church: Towards a Common Vision, was to uncover fundamental ecclesiological
principles, shared by most Christian communities, which could help them towards greater
convergence in the remaining divisive issues. In fulfilling this mandate it has given a
positive and more adequate account of the Church that can be shared by many and bodes
well for future dialogues about yet unresolved ecclesiological issues.

Notes on contributor
William Henn, OFM Cap., professor of ecclesiology at the Gregorian University, in Rome, has
authored The Hierarchy of Truths according to Yves Congar OP (1987), One Faith: Biblical and
Patristic Contributions Toward Understanding Unity in Faith (1995), The Honour of my Brothers:
A Brief History of the Relation between the Pope and the Bishops (2000) and Church. The People of
God (2004), as well as numerous articles in theological journals, dictionaries and collaborative
works. He has participated in his church’s bilateral dialogues with Pentecostals, the World
Communion of Reformed Churches, the Baptist World Alliance, the Lutheran World Federation and
the Mennonite World Conference, and is a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the WCC
and consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

Bibliography
Alberigo, Giuseppe, ed. Storia del concilio Vaticano II. 1 – 5 vols. Bologna/Leuven: Il Mulino/
Peeters, 1995– 2001.
Brigham, Erin M. Sustaining the Hope for Unity: Ecumenical Dialogue in a Postmodern World.
Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2012.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, The Primacy of the Successor of Peter in the Mystery of
the Church, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_
cfaith_doc_19981031_primato-successore-pietro_en.html (accessed October 15, 2014).
Ernesti, Jörg, and Wolfgang Thönissen. Die Entdeckung der Ökumene. Zur Beteiligung der
katholischen Kirche an der ökumenischen Bewegung. Paderborn-Frankfurt a. M: Bonifatius
GmbH, 2008.
‘Faith and Order Commission Approves New Theological Agreement’, http://ecumenism.net/2012/
07/wcc_fo_commission_approves_new_theological_agreement.htm (accessed September 10,
2014).
Faith and Order Commission. Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. Faith and Order Paper, 111. Geneva:
WCC, 1990.
———. Baptism, Eucharist & Ministry 1982– 1990: Report on the Process and Responses. Geneva:
WCC Publications, 1990.
———. The Church: Towards a Common Vision. Faith and Order Paper No. 214 Geneva: WCC
Publications, 2013. http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/commissions/faith-and-
order/i-unity-the-church-and-its-mission/the-church-towards-a-common-vision (accessed
November 13, 2014).
———. Moral Discernment in the Churches: A Study Document. Faith and Order Paper No. 215.
Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications, 2013, http://www.oikoumene.org/en/
resources/documents/commissions/faith-and-order/i-unity-the-church-and-its-mission/moral-
discernment-in-the-churches-a-study-document (accessed October 16, 2014).
Flannery, Austin, ed. Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents. Northport,
NY: Costello, 1975.
Gassmann, Günther. ‘The Church as Sacrament, Sign and Instrument: The Reception of this
Ecclesiological Understanding in Ecumenical Debate’. In Church, Kingdom, World, ed.
Gennadios Limouris, 1 – 17. Geneva: WCC Publications, 1986.
Hietamääki, Minna. Agreeable Agreement: An Examination of the Quest for Consensus in
Ecumenical Dialogue. London/New York: T & T Clark, 2010.
402 W. Henn

Hünnermann, Peter, and Bernd Jochen Hilberath, eds. Herders theologischer Kommentar zum
Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 1 – 5 vols. Freiburg/Basel/Wien: Herder, 2001.
John XXIII. ‘Solenne apertura del Concilio ecumenico Vaticano II, Discorso del santo padre
Giovanni XXIII, Giovedı̀, 11 ottobre 1962’, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_xxiii/
speeches/1962/documents/hf_j-xxiii_spe_19621011_opening-council_it.html (accessed August
29, 2014).
‘Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic
Church’, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_
chrstuni_doc_31101999_cath-luth-joint-declaration_en.html (accessed October 16, 2014).
Kasper, Walter. Harvesting the Fruits: Basic Aspects of Christian Faith in Ecumenical Dialogue.
London/New York: Continuum, 2009.
Madrigal, Santiago. Unas lecciones sobre el Vaticano II y su legado. Madrid: Universidad Pontificia
Comillas, 2012.
Pottmeyer, Herman Josef. Towards a Papacy in Communion: Perspectives from Vatican Councils I
and II. New York: Crossroad, 1998.
Rahner, Karl. ‘Sündige Kirche nach den Dekreten des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils’. Schriften zur
Theologie, 321– 47. Einsiedeln: Benziger, 1968.
Ratzinger, Joseph. ‘Intervento del cardinale Joseph Ratzingersull’ecclesiologia della costituzione”-
Lumen gentium” al convegno internazionale sull’attuazione del concilio ecumenico Vaticano II
promosso dal comitato del grande giubileodell’anno 2000’, http://www.doctrinafidei.va/
documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000227_ratzinger-lumen-gentium_it.html (accessed August
28, 2014).
Routhier, Giles. ‘Deuxième Partie: Herméneutique et débats’. Cinquante ans après Vatican II. Que
reste-t-il à mettre en oeuvre, 85 – 196. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2014.
Ruddy, Christopher. ‘Ressourcement and the Enduring Legacy of Post-Tridentine Theology’.
In Ressourcement. A Movement for Renewal in Twentieth Century Catholic Theology, ed.
Gabriel Flynn and Paul D. Murray with the assistance of Patricia Kelly, 185– 201. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2012.
Velati, Mauro. Una difficile transizione. Il cattolicesimo tra unionismo ed ecumenismo (1952 –
1964). Bologna: Il Mulino, 1996.
Vischer, Lukas et al. ‘Consensus’. In Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement, ed. Nicholas Lossky,
246– 50. Geneva: WCC Publications, 2002.
‘The World Methodist Council Statement of Association with the Joint Declaration on Justification’,
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/meth-council-docs/rc_pc_
chrstuni_doc_20060723_text-association_en.html (accessed October 16, 2014).