Anglicans: Empty Pews, Full Spirit

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It may be, argues Bishop Wand, that it is the destiny of Anglicanism to disappear into new forms of Christianity, "just as it is the destiny of a river to merge with the sea." Sixteen years ago, four Anglican dioceses left the communion to join with a number of Protestant groups in the new and lively Church of South India. Other Anglican provinces are considering the possibility of similar united churches in Ceylon, Pakistan and North India, Japan and Australia. In the U.S., Episcopal leaders are continuing to discuss the Blake-Pike proposals for a new superchurch encompassing six major Protestant bodies. The Church of England has before it a plan for reunion with English Methodists.

All such ecumenical exploration has the hearty approval of Michael Ramsey. "No one can even hint at what the timetable for Christian unity will be," he said last week. "But of course I believe it right that all of Christianity should one day be united. And I feel sure that reunion with Rome will one day come, though it is fair to say that both we and Rome will be a good deal changed by then."