Imaginative Ecumenism—Rethinking the Paradigm from an Anglican Perspective

Abstract

This article reviews the history of the ecumenical movement from an English Anglican perspective, exploring its successes and limitations. It suggests that ecumenical aspirations risk being bogged down in incremental ecumenism, the pursuit of small steps in inter-church relations. A worked example is the Porvoo agreement, which depended on a new paradigm of the Anglican understanding of order, yet which has not been applied equivalently elsewhere. The necessity of unity is reasserted, and a call for a more imaginative, eschatological paradigm of unity is made. Some implications for Anglican ecumenism are briefly explored.

Keywords

• Anglicanism
• order
• ecumenism
• Church of England
• faith and order
• conciliarity