Sir, - What I have read about the document One Bread, One Body and the pronouncements of official Roman Catholic spokesmen has left me hurt and saddened, but I cling to the hope that Christians at grass-roots level will find a way around the minefield of rules and regulations that the Hierarchy has put in our way. I remain a committed ecumenist, believing that it is the will of God that His people should be one and I will do all in my power to advance the cause of Christian unity.
After 30 years of debate since Vatican II, there are still many in the various churches who remain to be convinced that unity is the way forward and I recognise that there are genuine fears about loss of identity and the dilution of preciously held convictions. To those people I would make the point that unity does not mean uniformity; we can still be ourselves and hold on to our own views, while at the same time reaching out the hand to receive from one another. There can be profound unity alongside great diversity. Please take note, Bishop Farquhar, that no-one need pretend to be anything that they are not.
On those occasions when I have been privileged to be involved in an act of Eucharistic fellowship with my brothers and sisters of the Roman Catholic Church there was never any sham or pretence on the part of anyone present. I have never once felt any lessening of my commitment to my own denomination when going to receive in a Roman Catholic church, and I would never seek to diminish the attachment of my Roman Catholic friends to their faith identity in inviting them to receive at a Church of Ireland Eucharist.
What is far more fundamentally at issue here than Eucharistic belief and practice is, I think, the question of the nature of the church. In the document the bishops use repeatedly the term "Catholic" to describe their particular denomination and the claim is repeated that "in the Catholic Church is .. . the fullness of the means of salvation"; following on from that, the Pope and the Curia claim the right to determine who may and who may not receive the sacrament of the Catholic Church. I would remind their lordships that the term "Catholic" is not the property of those who look to the Bishop of Rome as their leader and make the claim that he is the Vicar of Christ. The Catholic Church is the fellowship of all baptised Christians under the headship of our Lord Jesus Christ and is not to be confused with a denomination, I maintain. As a member of the Church of Ireland, I too am a Catholic Christian.
As a result of human weakness and sin, the Catholic Church has become divided into many denominations which call themselves churches, of which the Roman Church is one. The different denominations have a perfectly legitimate right to pose a particular view of their own concerning the meaning of the sacraments which they administer, but they have no right to claim ownership of the sacraments and exclude people from participation in them, if they act in the name of Jesus. Jesus instituted the Eucharist in an undivided church and shared the Last Supper with a group of men of diverse opinions, including the one who was to betray Him. I wonder what He would make of the modern-day divisions among His disciples and our disputes over the meal of fellowship which He bequeathed to us.
In all humility, I would appeal to the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church to rethink their stated position on inter-communion and related issues, such as "interchurch marriages". They can do better and should consider addressing some of the issues that are really relevant in Irish society today, such as the greed and gross misconduct apparent in our business and political affairs. - Yours, etc., David Frazer,
St Michael's Rectory, Millicent, Sallins, Co Kildare.