Perspectief 2015-29

Perspectief 46 Peter de Mey statement. The drafting committee decided however to take the Orthodox criticism of these paragraphs – formulated during an inter-Orthodox consultation on The Nature and Mission of the Church in March 2011 – very much seriously. According to the Orthodox “the term Creatura Verbi is confessionally idiosyncratic, deriving exclusively from the Reformed tradition.” They admit that “it is not uncommon to adapt each other’s terminology in ecumenical texts, but this entails a lengthy process of reception.” Finally, they also deplored that one had to invent the term “ Creatura Spiritus ” “in order to accommodate pneumatology.” The Church: Towards a Common Vision luckily still presents it as a consensus of all churches that “the Church is centred and grounded in the Gospel, the proclamation of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, Son of the Father.” (§ 14) Thereafter reference is made to the fact that “some communities would call the Church creatura evangelii or ‘creature of the Gospel’.” It is also admitted that the idea behind this terminology remains important for the definition of the nature of the Church itself: “A defining aspect of the Church’s life is to be a community that hears and proclaims the word of God. The Church draws life from the Gospel and discovers every anew the direction for her journey.” (ibid.) Remarkably, however, there is even no trace of the previous attention for this image in the summary of The Nature and Mission of the Church , which is part of the historical note added to the 2013 agreed statement by way of appendix. V A final Catholic note at the end I conclude my Catholic assessment of this important Faith & Order agreed statement on the Church by pointing to the presence of one more Catholic authority in our text. The Church: Towards a Common Vision was completed under the pontificate of Pope Benedict. If he has still read the document (which we may hope of course) I doubt whether he will consider it as a compliment that his memory will be perpetuated as the one who prolonged the initiative of his predecessor to organize an interreligious prayer moment in Assisi. At the same time this quotation – found in a paragraph dealing with authority in the Church – is an interesting example of the fact that our agreed statement at times has tried to be very much concrete: