International Synod meeting of Societas Sanctae Crucis

On 14 October 2021, Reverend Anthony Currer, PCPCU staff member responsible for Catholic‒Anglican relations, gave a keynote address at the International Synod meeting of the Societas Sanctae Crucis (SSC, also known as the Society of the Holy Cross) held in Church House, London. The society, founded in 1855 by Reverend Charles Lowder, is an association of Anglican Clergy who live and minister under a common Rule of Life. Some 250 members were in attendance.

Father Currer’s address, entitled “Catholics and Anglicans: Next Steps in the Search for Unity”, presented the main themes of the Pontifical Council’s most recent document, The Bishop and Christian Unity: An Ecumenical Vademecum.  With reference to a letter written in 1949 by the Welsh scripture scholar and ecumenist Professor Charles Harold Dodd, Father Currer emphasised the need for multiple ecumenical strategies to be mutually supporting and highlighted in particular the need for prayer for Christian unity, personal and communal conversion, a culture of encounter, and joint Christian witness. These elements, which convert hearts towards our brothers and sisters in Christ and nurture the desire for unity, are needed to sustain the patient work of theological ecumenical dialogue so that, in the words of C. H. Dodd, we will have the courage to follow its conclusions “whithersoever it leads”.