Lecture - The Church - by William Henn

30 considered normative and, if so, how and who is capable of proposing such a teaching. There would be even less convergence about the topic that more recently and less frequently has entered into ecumenical dialogue, that is, whether the Church needs a ministry serving the unity of the whole united community, such as that exercised by the bishop of Rome. There are still unresolved differences concerning what can be counted as legitimate diversity and the criteria needed for distinguishing legitimate diversity from unacceptable division. While the text argues for a certain rapprochement between the notions of ordinance and sacrament, disagreement remains concerning the number of these rites, who may be baptized, who may preside at the Eucharist and other rites and who may be ordained. In today’s context in which we are more and more aware of religious pluralism and of a secularized society, disagreement remains between Christian communities concerning whether an explicit confession of faith in Christ as an absolute condition for salvation or whether, by means of a kind of implicit faith, God could save people in ways known to God alone. All of these are important and difficult issues. Still, one might hope that the important convergences registered in The Church: Towards a Common Vision concerning fundamental ecclesiological principles – convergences that hopefully most Christian communities would be able to share – could create a new climate and a new framework for considering these yet divisive issues. Might not this new framework of convergence about fundamental ecclesiological principles provide an opportunity either to reach further consensus about some of these issues which still divide or, perhaps in some cases, have a more adequate grasp of whether some of these issues are not so decisive in our search for the unity for which Jesus prayed.