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15 The foundation documents of all three churches make it clear they regard themselves as part of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
The Preface to the Church of England's Declaration of Assent states:

"The Church of England is part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church worshipping the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds, which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation. Led by the Holy Spirit, it has borne witness to Christian truth in its historic formularies, the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer and the Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons." (Canon C15 1(1) The Canons of the Church of England)

The Doctrinal Standards of the Methodist Church state:

"The Methodist Church claims and cherishes its place in the Holy Catholic Church which is the Body of Christ. It rejoices in the inheritance of the apostolic faith and loyally accepts the fundamental principles of the historic creeds and of the Protestant Reformation. It ever remembers that in the providence of God Methodism was raised up to spread scriptural holiness through the land by the proclamation of the evangelical faith and declares its unfaltering resolve to be true to its divinely appointed mission."

The Basis of Union of the United Reformed Church states:

"The United Reformed Church confesses the faith of the Church catholic in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It acknowledges that the life of faith to which it is called is a gift of the Holy Spirit continually received in Word and Sacrament and in the common life of God's people. It acknowledges the Word of God in the Old and New Testaments, discerned under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as the supreme authority for the faith and conduct of all God's people." (Basis of Union para 12)

16 All three believe themselves to be firmly committed to the goal of the full visible unity of that Church. In recent years all have restated that commitment.

In 1996 the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church reaffirmed the commitment made in its Basis of Union of 1972 to take

"wherever possible, and with all speed, further steps towards the unity of all God's people." (Basis of Union para.8).

At that Assembly it resolved, virtually unanimously, to continue to express that commitment through resource sharing, active involvement in ecumenical bodies, the development and support of Local Ecumenical Partnerships and United Areas and, most significantly, in

"active participation in initiatives leading towards organic union." (GA1996 resolution 31)

17 Commitment to Mission and Unity (1996), the report of the Informal Conversations between the Church of England and the Methodist Church, set out the two churches' common understanding of the goal of visible unity. The report states, in a chapter entitled Our Common Goal of Visible Unity, their shared conviction that

"the Church is called to make visible God's gift of unity in both space and time."

It also maintains that

"the visible unity we seek to live out together is a stage on the way to the full visible unity which we hope to realize with the whole Christian family."

18 The search for full visible unity has led the three churches along various paths, sometimes in company with each other and sometimes in company with others. Over the past 30 years, important international ecumenical work in which some or all of the three churches have been involved has assisted and encouraged that search. Of particular importance have been the 1982 World Council of Churches' Faith and Order Commission paper, Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, the 1984 report of the Anglican-Reformed dialogue, God's Reign and our Unity, and the 1993 Interim Report of the Anglican Ð Methodist International Commission, Sharing in the Apostolic Communion.

19 Between 1978 and 1982 the three churches, together with the Moravian Church, tried and failed to covenant for unity in England. For many in all three churches this was a bitter blow to ecumenical hopes. But out of that failure a complex and rich ecumenical life has developed in which all three churches are inextricably involved. One of the grass-roots responses to the failure of the covenant for unity at national level was the establishment of many new Local Ecumenical Partnerships, involving all three churches. All three were centrally involved in the birth of the new ecumenical instruments and in the Called to be One process of Churches Together in England. Joint theological education became increasingly the norm, especially between these three churches. As ecumenical life in England has developed, all three churches have come to exercise, along with other partner churches, some degree of shared oversight at the level of the county sponsoring body, especially in relation to Local Ecumenical Partnerships.

20 The United Reformed Church (created through the 1972 union of the Congregational Church in England and Wales and the Presbyterian Church of England) continued, during this period, to seek further organic unions. In 1981 it united with the Re-formed Association of the Churches of Christ and in 2000 with the Congregational Union of Scotland. Since 1973, both the United Reformed Church and the Methodist Church have committed themselves to work for full visible unity in Wales through the Commission of Covenanting Churches, known as Enfys. The 1998 Methodist Conference and the 2000 General Assembly gave preliminary support to the Commission's proposal for an ecumenical bishop in East Cardiff. The United Reformed Church and the Methodist Church are also both committed to search for a basis for union in Scotland with the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church. There too, bishops are part of the proposed basis for union.

21 The relationship between the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church is particularly close at the local level where there are nearly 200 joint churches and three united areas. (United Areas function as both United Reformed Church District Councils and Methodist Circuits.) A national liaison committee has existed since the 1970s. It seeks to make the life of the joint churches more bearable while the parent churches remain disunited. However, when in 1990, by means of a questionnaire, the two churches were canvassed for support for exploring the path to closer union, there was not a sufficient majority of responses in favour in either church to warrant proceeding further. One of the reasons for both United Reformed Church and Methodist Church lack of support for bilateral talks was a preference for the multi-lateral approach through the new ecumenical bodies. Another factor in both churches was that the supporters of the Covenant which had failed in 1982 still looked for a way forward which would include the Church of England.

22 In 1975 the United Reformed Church, because of its close relationships (from both its congregational and presbyterian traditions) with many Reformed churches in mainland Europe, became a member of the Leuenberg Fellowship. The 1973 Leuenberg Agreement between European Lutheran, Reformed and United churches defined church fellowship in terms of a common understanding of the Gospel, a setting aside of past doctrinal condemnations, and a granting of fellowship in word and eucharist including mutual recognition of ordination. In 1995 the Methodist Church also became a member. Ninety-nine churches, mostly European but including a few in Latin America, are now members of the Leuenberg Fellowship. Some of the Baltic and Nordic Lutheran churches, including some signatories to the Porvoo Declaration have signed the Agreement. (These various agreements are described in the appendix)

23 During this period, the Church of England was seeking full visible unity through a 'steps and stages' approach to particular partners, or groups of partners. It turned, at first, to the Evangelische Kirche, Deutschland (EKD) Ð an umbrella body which holds together the Lutheran, Reformed and United churches of Germany. There was a long-standing relationship on which to build, and as large, national churches they had much common ground. The resulting Meissen Common Statement of 1989 set the pattern for future agreements in which the Church of England was involved. The agreed Common Statement claimed that full, visible unity must include the following characteristics:

• a common confession of the apostolic faith in word and life
• the sharing of one baptism, the celebrating of one eucharist and the service of a reconciled, common ministry
• bonds of communion which enable the Church at every level to guard and interpret the apostolic faith, to take decisions, to teach authoritatively, to share goods and to bear effective witness. These bonds will possess personal, collegial and communal aspects.

The signatories committed themselves

"to share a common life and mission. We will take all possible steps to closer fellowship in as many areas of Christian life and witness as possible, so that all our members together may advance on the way to full, visible unity."

24 The Fetter Lane Common Statement (1996) between the Church of England and the Moravian Church and The Reuilly Common Statement (1999) between the British and Irish Anglican churches and the French Lutheran and Reformed churches followed much the same pattern, the former being the first to involve an English partner. Each agreement led to a formal mutual recognition of one another as churches, and a commitment to continue to seek full visible unity together. These agreements did not lead to interchangeability of ordained ministry.

25 In the case of both the Meissen Agreement with the EKD and the Reuilly Agreement with the French Lutheran and Reformed Churches the United Reformed Church already had long-standing partnerships with those churches, and was in pulpit and table fellowship with them through the Leuenberg Agreement. The United Reformed Church was, as a result, invited to send an observer to both the German and the French conversations.

26 The Porvoo Agreement (1993) between the British and Irish Anglican churches and some of the Nordic and Baltic Lutheran churches was, however, able to offer interchangeability of ordained ministry because the signatories were able to declare:

"we acknowledge that the episcopal office is valued and maintained in all our churches as a visible sign expressing and serving the Church's unity and continuity in apostolic life, mission and ministry."

This, in turn, led to the signatories being able to commit themselves:

"to welcome persons episcopally ordained in any of our churches to the office of bishop, priest or deacon to serve, by invitation and in accordance with any regulations which may from time to time be in force, in that ministry in the receiving church without re-ordination;" (Together in Mission and Ministry, p30)