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References
Published material
The Basis of Union of the United Reformed
Church 1972.
Papers prepared for these conversations
The Conciliar Expression of the
Apostolicity of the Church in the United Reformed
Church.
Appendix
The Leuenberg Agreement
In 1973, the Leuenberg Agreement gave rise to a fellowship of churches of the Reformation. The greater number of these are minority churches which often carry out their mission in difficult conditions. Among the 99 member churches, otherwise European, are five Protestant churches in South America, deriving from early immigrant communities.
There is consensus among the signatories on two main points. The Gospel is seen as a message of justification of the godless through God's free grace. Each local church is understood to be a congregation based on Word and Sacrament, engaged in common witness and service. This consensus makes it possible for signatories to recognise one another as Church while accepting as legitimate the diversity of ways in which that Church manifests itself locally.
The Leuenberg Declaration of Church Fellowship was the start of a continuing process by which that fellowship is realised. A General Assembly is held at least every six years to give momentum to the continuing work. The most obvious advances are in the field of theological work. The document The Church of Jesus Christ is of particular ecumenical significance, but important work has also been undertaken on social issues since the Vienna Assembly in 1994.
Above all, the Leuenberg Church Fellowship sees itself not as a Protestant enclave but as a loosely structured ecumenical fellowship of Christian churches Ð a step on the way to visible Church unity. Additional urgency comes from the knowledge that if the churches are to have their say in the process of European integration, they must agree on the message they wish to convey.
Meissen, Fetter Lane, Reuilly and Porvoo
In recent years, the Church of England has entered into several theological agreements with other Christian churches throughout Europe.
In the Meissen Agreement (1988) the Church of England and the Evangelical Church in Germany acknowledge one another as churches belonging to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, with authentic ministries of word, sacrament and pastoral oversight. They also commit themselves to share a common life and witness and to strive together towards full visible unity.
Similar acknowledgements and commitments were made in the Fetter Lane Agreement (1996) between the Church of England and the Moravian Church in Great Britain and Ireland and in the Reuilly Common Statement (1999) between the British and Irish Anglican Churches and the French Lutheran and Reformed Churches.
However, a major step forward was taken in the Porvoo Agreement (1992) when the British and Irish Anglican churches entered into communion with a number of Nordic and Baltic Lutheran Churches. This Agreement goes beyond Meissen, Fetter Lane and Reuilly as it allows the signatory churches to regard the baptised members of all the other churches as members of their own church and allows for interchangeability of ministers within the churches. It also allows shared forms of oversight.
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