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Australia
In Newcastle, New South Wales, Christine and Warren Sheppard have joined Brian and Bev Hincks in an embryonic interchurch families group. Christine wrote an article for Australian Catholics explaining that she is a Uniting Church minister married to a Catholic; their daughter attends an Anglican school. She writes of the joy of their situation, of ,'my ordination ten years ago when I processed into an overflowing church, not just with members of Presbytery and Synod colleagues, but also with dear friends who are Catholic priests and religious, and Anglican priests". She writes of the pain, of "going to mass each Saturday night and at other times, and I cannot receive communion, even though I have been very involved in the parishes we have lived in both before and after I was ordained. Instead, usually I receive a blessing. That can be very hurtful, especially as I have a deep passion for the eucharist. The pain was compounded at our daughter's first communion, a beautiful mass, when, as a mother, proudly I saw our seven-year-old daughter read the scriptures and receive her communion. I was unable to obtain permission for myself to join her."
In Brisbane, Queensland, interchurch couples are busy writing their stories in the hope that these will be a useful resource for other couples, or for those working with couples. Monica Sharwood reports that : "The Eucharistic Guidelines are working well - those who have applied through their parish priests have been granted permission for their partners to receive communion when worshipping with them." (For details of the guidelines, see Interchurch Families, Summer 1996, p.8.)
Austria
ARGE Okumene
Following the meeting with Austrian interchurch families at Graz (see p.3), English AIF decided to keep up the contact by sending three representatives to the Austrian interchurch families' annual conference held at St Polten, Austria, 24-26 October 1997, on the theme: Are we one church? We hope to give more on the history and life of the Austrian interchurch family movement in our next number.
France
The second international meeting of the foyers mixtes francophones took place at Lyon, 7-8 July 1997, under the title "Breakers or Builders of Unity?" (for the first meeting, at Versailles in November 1995, see Interchurch Families, January 1996, p.8). An adult and two young people from England joined the French, and have written up their experiences for News and Notes (for AIF members in England) and the Interdependent (written by and for interchurch young people). There were about 200 participants including some twenty young people. Speakers included both the former and present Presidents of the French Bishops' Ecumenical Commission (Mgr A.Le Bourgeois -who celebrated the Sunday eucharist - and Mgr G.Daucourt), both the former and present Presidents of the Protestant Federation of France (pastors J. Maury and J.Tartier), Pasteur M.Freychet, Sr Danielle, Prioress of Pomeyrol and Martin Conway, President of the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham.
Twenty-five years on in Strasbourg
In November 1972 Mgr Leon Elchinger issued some carefully thought-out directives on eucharistic hospitality for interchurch families, concerned for the pastoral care of the large numbers of mixed marriages between Catholics and Lutheran or Reformed Christians in his diocese of Strasbourg. (Two sections of these directives are given in full in the documentation section of Sharing Communion, edited by Ruth Reardon and Melanie Finch, 1983, pp. 119-203. This book is still available from AIF and is included in our Sharing Communion Pack.)
25 years on, foyers mixtes in Strasbourg asked the diocesan ecumenical commission to look back at these directives. In April 1997 the commission therefore asked Jo Hoffmann, Professor of Catholic Theology at Strasbourg University, a member of the ecumenical groupe des Dombes and drafter of Mgr Elchinger's text, to reflect on the document and its influence. He did so, taking account also of the 1983 Note of the French bishops, which identified the need of long-lasting ecumenical groups for eucharistic sharing, as well as that of interchurch families. We are grateful to Francine Wild for her notes on Professor Hoffmann's lively and informal address, on which the following paragraphs are based.
It is especially interesting to recall how Mgr Elchinger's document grappled with the ecclesiological questions underlying eucharistic hospitality. Eucharistic hospitality will always be something anomalous, shocking to the mind, but it exists only because of another anomaly: the rupture of communion between the churches. The Bishop of Strasbourg's text broke through the anomalies by taking account of the historical dimension of the Church; which is at one and the same time the place of unity already given and unity to be realised.
Therefore, reflected Professor Hoffmann, the question of eucharistic hospitality should never be put in terms of what is allowed/what is forbidden, but in terms of its meaning ("the meaning it takes on", to quote the 1972 text). We can take responsibility for eucharistic hospitality - in principle exceptional - according to the meaning which it can have for the persons concerned and for the communities to which they belong. Reciprocity (to which a lengthy section of the 1972 text was devoted) can also be seen in this perspective: what meaning would one-way hospitality have?
The question should not be raised in a purely personal perspective, but related to the church. A couple who deepen their faith together and witness to their children, or an ecumenical working group, represent units of the church. So it is for them to decide in conscience on the usefulness of eucharistic hospitality, and when it should be renewed. The need is much less obvious when it comes to an interchurch wedding (at a single point in time) or a parish on the occasion of the Week of Prayer for Unity, as is being requested in Alsace; in these cases, pastors must accept their responsibilities for making decisions.
But in the case of interchurch couples, it is conscience which should determine whether the act has meaning (according to the circumstances); if it is possible (a community with Zwinglian theology or a congregational situation might cause a Catholic to hesitate); and if there is risk of misinterpretation (sometimes eucharistic hospitality can take on a meaning for those who are present which is not intended by those who practise it).
On the ecclesiological question we must beware of oversimplified formulae like "The church makes the eucharist and the eucharist makes the church": it is clear that the verb 11 makes" does not have the same meaning in the two cases. We need not be troubled by different ecclesial accents, some insisting on the believing community and others on the grace received. If we think of unity as already given and also to be realised we can hold together apparent divergences. Concretely, today, there is a serious ecclesial issue: the churches and "ecclesial communities" which stem from the Reformation are not fully recognised by Catholics. But the heat has gone out of it. That makes the exercise of conscience
Ireland
NIMMA
The Northern Ireland Mixed Marriage Association held its annual conference at Tir Navar, Co.Fermanagh, with Fr Pat Conlan of the Franciscan community at Rossnowlagh and the Revd Paul Colton, Rector of Castleknock, Dublin, as speakers. NIMMA has now been recognised by the Inland Revenue as having charitable status, and has received core funding from the Community Relations Council for a further three years. Along with ACCORD (formerly the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council) and RELATE, it is seeking a grant from the Ireland Fund for the publication of an educational pack for distribution to schools in Northern Ireland.
Instead of its annual conference, AIFI held a less formal get-together on 27th September 1997, at Castleknock Parish Centre, Dublin, to talk over the role of the association.
Italy
Italian coppie interconfessionali hosted the fifteenth Italian-French-Swiss conference at Torre Pellice, near Turin, 11-14 July 1997 (the first was held in 1970). The theme was "Confirmation and First Communion". As well as temoignages from three French couples which set the scene, there was much useful information on recent catechetical work being done in the Italian Catholic Church; this stresses evangelisation and formation for Christian living, rather than simply teaching doctrine. At the same time some Waldensian pastors are rethinking their approach. As always, personal stories were particularly memorable, especially those from the young people who came prepared to tell their stories and answer questions - including two sisters who were both baptised as teenagers without being ready to decide between the two churches of their parents. Finally one became a Catholic and the other a Waldensian (but they continued in the tradition that "it was always normal for us to be one church at home"). An observer from England notices that the two churches present clear alternatives in a way that the Catholic and Anglican Churches, so much closer to one another in structure and belief, do not.
Since the 'eighties there has been a tradition of splitting up to join local churches for Sunday worship. For the first time participants joined Catholic and Waldensian communities outside Torre Pellice, going to the village of Perero in the Val Germanasca, reading their "Message" in both and receiving a tremendous welcome from both. It is hoped to hold another Italian-French-Swiss gathering in 1999.
A meeting in Tobago
Antony and Janet Denman are members of the Teams of Our Lady, a Catholic organisation for married couples. In summer 1997, with four other couples and two priests from England, they attended a five-day world gathering of Teams couples in Tobago. They write:
As Antony is a member of the United Reformed Church, he wrote to Archbishop Pantin of Trinidad and Tobago to ask if he could receive communion while at the session. We were able to note that we had been invited to speak on the subject of Personal Prayer, and to stress that in other respects Antony would be a full participant.
We were delighted when the Archbishop wrote a very pleasant letter agreeing, on the basis that Antony would not have access to his own priest. (There are many brands of church in Tobago - Moravian, Methodist, Seventh Day Adventist, Baptist, Open Bible, and Evangelical - but no United Reformed.) The Archbishop is a supporter of Teams of Our Lady, and attended the final afternoon and presided over the final mass. Antony was able to thank him personally, and receive communion from him.
It was a deeply spiritual experience to receive communion together after almost 21 years of married life, and to do so surrounded by our Teams friends, old and new. We were able to share some of our experiences as a mixed couple in our talk and in the discussions. Most couples were from Trinidad and Tobago, and while they were happy that Antony should share, they did note the presence on the Islands of small mission churches which actively evangelise with a totally negative message about what they conceive as the destructive influence of the Roman Catholic Church.
It is an irony of the current system that in Tobago Antony received communion on occasion from the English priests. Once back in England, however, this will not be possible.
It was deeply moving to share communion, and something we pray we may doi again – without travelling so far next time!
6.1.8-9
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Published by the Association of Interchurch Families, London
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