Dialogue Document
Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation: ARC VII Statement (1969)
Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation: ARC VII Statement, December 8-11, 1969
Anglicans and Roman Catholics in the United States have been meeting officially since June of 1965. The group of representatives named by the Roman Catholic Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the Joint Commission on Ecumenical Relations of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America has subsequently been known as the Joint Commission on Anglican-Roman Catholic Relations in the United States (usually informally abbreviated to ARC).
Seven meetings have been held to date. These were ARC I, in June of 1965, in Washington, D.C.; ARC II, in February of 1966, at Kansas City, Missouri; ARC III, in October of 1966, at Providence, Rhode Island; ARC IV, in May of 1967, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin; ARC V, in January of 1968, at Jackson, Mississippi; ARC VI, in December of 1968, at Liberty, Missouri; ARC VII, in December of 1969, at Boynton Beach, Florida.
From the beginning, members of ARC have sensed the creative theological and ecumenical possibilities in the situation of their two churches in the United States. At their first meeting, they came to a speedy agreement on several questions relating to the sacraments of Christian initiation. In particular, they were agreed that the instances of conditional baptism of Episcopalians upon admission to the Roman Catholic Church or of confirmation of Roman Catholics by Episcopalians were abuses. With their common sacramental emphasis, the group chose at the same time the topic of the ensuing conversations to be: "The Eucharist, Sign and Cause of Unity; the Church as a Eucharistic Fellowship." ARC studied this theme continuously in meetings II through V.