Full Communion

The Lambeth Conference had made the proposal in 1920: that the Church of England and Britain's Nonconformist churches enter into "full communion" as the first step toward a church united. For more than a quarter century thereafter the project gathered dust in ecclesiastical archives. But this week, in a sermon at the University of Cambridge, the Most Rev. and Right Honorable Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, forcibly reminded British Christians that the idea was not dead. Excerpts:

"The road is not yet open. We are not yet ready for organic or constitutional union. But there can be a process of assimilation, of growing alike. . . . My longing is not yet that we should be united with other churches in this country, but that we should grow to full communion with them. . . . Full communion between churches means not that they are identical in all ways, but that there is no barrier to exchange of their ministers and ministries. Every church's ministry is effective as a means by which the life of Christ reaches His people. Every church's ministry is defective because it is prevented from operating in all the folds of His flock. . . .

"I love the Church of England, as the Presbyterians and the Methodists love their churches. It is, I think, not possible yet nor desirable that any church should merge its identity in a newly constituted union. What I desire is that I should be able freely to enter their churches and they mine in the sacrament of the Lord, that His life may freely circulate between us. Cannot we grow to full communion with each other before we start to write a constitution? Have we the wisdom, the humility, the love and the spirit of Christ sufficient for such a venture?"

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