MESSAGE OF GREETING TO THE ANGLICAN CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL
As President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, it gives me great pleasure to send greetings to all those taking part in the fourteenth meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Jamaica.
Your reflection upon the Church’s Mission is most timely, for in seeking to discern how practically the Gospel may be preached to all men and women, you are realising the will of Christ that his Church be a truly universal sacrament of salvation. In this endeavour you have the prayers and good wishes of your ecumenical partners. We have a common concern for the Church’s mission, and so must renew our efforts to overcome divisions so that we may bring all people to share in the communion between the Father and the Son in their Spirit of love.
Most especially at this Meeting, the consideration you will give to the Covenant for the Provinces of the Anglican Communion, and the final report of the Windsor Continuation Process, will play an essential part in discerning the way forward for the Anglican Communion in the light of current complex issues.
As one of the four Instruments of Unity of the Anglican Communion, the Anglican Consultative Council has a key role, not merely in virtue of the issues which it considers, but also in the way it helps to reinforce the importance of both primacy and conciliarity within the diverse Anglican Provinces. Your discussions will encompass not mere external links which regulate the lives of respective provinces from outside, but rather the internal bonds that spring from deep within the heart of each individual church, and which are part of its own self definition.
It is my hope that your discussions in Jamaica will contribute to a healing, articulating, and strengthening of these bonds of love that unite the worldwide Anglican Communion. Please be assured of my prayerful good wishes for a fruitful meeting.
Yours sincerely,
Walter Cardinal Kasper
President
Iglesia Filipina Independiente 1500 Taft Avenue, Ermita, Manila, Philippines 1000
His Eminence The Most Rev. Godofredo J. David Supreme Bishop XI
May 2009
Their Graces,
Grace and peace in the name of the Risen Lord!
We extend to you the warmest greetings of your sisters and brothers in the Iglesia Filipina Independiente for this historic moment as you gather for the fourteenth meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council. We are one with you in prayers as you come together in the presence of God and seek to discern His will as you strive to make the Anglican Communion remain faithful to its historic calling and to make its work more relevant and more responsive to the challenges of our present time.
We pray especially for the ministry of the Anglican Consultative Council as an instrument of unity within the Communion. In today’s fragmented world, the Council must help the Communion manifest the unity that Christ prays for all who follow him in faith and become a reflection of the communion of saints around the world. The unity that binds the Communion gives the people of the world an inspiration in dealing with the painful conflicts that arise from division; a unity that is not merely founded out of a desire for uniformity or singularity in many aspects of being and becoming a Church, but rather one that seeks and strengthens respect for one another despite differences in opinions and disagreements in perspectives.
The Anglican Communion professes a unity that is not afraid to admit the reality of disagreements in the one Body of Christ; neither is weakened by its many limitations, but rather compels it to boldly engage into principled debate and passionate deliberations in the desire to attain the resolution of contradictions that would further strengthen the Communion and make its witness in the world more meaningful.
Again, kindly accept our sincerest prayers for a fruitful meeting of the Council as we share your hope to bring the Communion into the path of renewal through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Sincerely,
THE MOST REVD GODOFREDO J. DAVID, D.D.
Obispo Maximo
Internationale Altkatholische Bischofskonferenz der Utrechter Union
International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Union of Utrecht
President: Der Erzbischof von Utrecht
President: The Archbishop of Utrecht
Amersfoort, 15f April 2009
Dear Rowan and members of the Council,
At the beginning of this meeting of the Council, gathering in Jamaica this year, it is to my great pleasure that I send you my sincere greetings and best wishes. To receive these greetings at the beginning of each meeting is a good tradition to have us all realize how valuable our partnership is.
The work of the Council is important to us, the Union of Utrecht and I highly estimate the work which is done so far and the work which will be achieved.
In our long-standing relationship we have witnessed the wonderful progress which has been established. In the past, many projects and plans came true through our joint efforts, bringing closer the unity of Christians in their different experiences.
The work of the ACC will be dominated by the Windsor process. This process is extremely important for all of us because of its ecclesiological significance. It is our hope that the ACC will be able to contribute to the reshaping of the Anglican Communion into a worldwide communion of local churches in which all of them will find themselves accepted as God's gift to one another.
My prayers will be with you during this meeting and I wish you God's blessing during these days of working and discussing together.
May your efforts bear fruit in the furthering of God's kingdom.
May God bless you all abundantly
+ J.A.O.L. Vercamrren
By His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
It is with great joy that we convey - in response to the gracious invitation extended by Bishop John Paterson and Canon Kenneth Kearon, Chairman and Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council - this warm greeting to the honourable members of the Anglican Consultative Council that are meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, from 1 to 13 May, 2009.
In full recognition of our close relations and invaluable dialogue with our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion, as well as our personal communication and cherished exchange with the Most Reverend Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, we would like to express our sincerest wishes and prayers for a successful meeting of your significant gathering of clergy and laity.
Moreover, inasmuch as we appreciate the importance of the Anglican Consultative Council for the ongoing ecumenical dialogues of your blessed Communion, we have appointed as our personal representative His Eminence Metropolitan Nikitas of the Dardanelles, Director of the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute in Berkeley California, in order that he may attend as an observer on behalf of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Wishing you every success in your deliberations and decisions, we invoke upon you the light of the Risen Lord, and remain
At the Patriarchate, 24th of April 2009
Your fervent supplicant before God
Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch