Christians mark Reformation anniversary in Westminster
Abbey
Tuesday to mark the 500th anniversary of the start
of the Reformation movement. The midday service, led by the Dean of
Westminster, Dr John Hall, featured a new anthem, commissioned for the
occasion by Danish composer, Bent Sørensen.
It also included the official presentation by the Archbishop
of Canterbury of a resolution from the worldwide Anglican Communion which
welcomes and affirms the 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of
Justification (JDDJ) between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World
Federation. Last year the World
Communion of Reformed Churches also signed up to the declaration,
while the World Methodist Council did the same in 2006.
The service in Westminster Abbey was followed by a
symposium, entitled ‘Liberated by God’s Grace’, bringing together leading
academics to discuss the ongoing impact of the Reformation and its effect on
the Church and on society.
Canon Jean Gibaut is director of the Anglican
Communion’s office for Unity, Faith and Order. He talked to Philippa Hitchen
about the significance of Tuesday’s events…
He says celebrations were organized by Lutheran Council of
Great Britain as their final 2017 event. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin
Welby was invited to preach and he also presented to the LWF and the Catholic
Church a copy of the Anglican Consultative Council resolution from 2016 in
which the Anglican Communion welcomes and affirms the substance of the JDDJ.
Affirming the document on Doctrine of Justification
Gibaut notes that the Anglican Communion was able to make
this gesture to the Catholic and Lutheran Churches on the basis of “what we
were able to say about salvation” through the work of both bilateral dialogues.
Gibaut explains that the Anglican Communion is not a
signatory to the text in the way that World Communion of Reformed Churches or
the World Methodist Council is. He points out that Anglicans and Catholics came
to agreement in a 1986 document called ‘Salvation and the Church’, while a
similar agreement with Lutherans was reached in the 1990s
Reformation celebrations worldwide
He says the Anglican Communion resolution last year
demonstrates that we are “entirely supportive in extending our welcome to the
JDDJ and affirming the substance of it, which is a theological assessment as
well”.
Anglicans have been invited to join Lutherans and Catholics
around the world in marking 2017, including Tuesday’s celebration at
Westminster Abbey. Gibaut says the passing of the resolution, together with its
formal handing over, are part of a much larger picture of Anglican
participation in the events of this Reformation year.
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