Anglican-Catholic Panel Lays Framework for Salvation Tract

Anglican and Roman Catholic thinkers have tentatively agreed on the spiritual means to salvation, a theological issue that has divided the faiths since the Reformation in the 16th Century, a spokesman says.

The framework for an agreement was reached by the Second Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission during a 10-day meeting at Graymoor monastery in Garrison, about 55 miles north of New York City.

“Technically, we are not saying that we have reached agreement but that we have established a framework for substantial agreement on this matter,” said the Rev. Robert Wright, a member of the commission and professor of church history at the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan.

The salvation question centers around the theological issue of justification, or “being set right in God’s eyes,” Wright said. The medieval church said good works were needed for salvation, in addition to faith. Anglican and Protestant groups emphasized the latter in subsequent centuries.

The commission “wants to take the very best tradition of faith and belief in both churches and show that they can live in harmony with one another, and that the major tradition of faith and understanding in each church is not contradictory,” Wright said.

An actual statement of agreement is still being worked on and must be approved by the hierarchies of both churches, Wright said. The commission plans to release it next summer, he said.