Michael Nazir-Ali: Anglicans must 'look to Pope for unity'

by Ruth Gledhill
May 9, 2009

As the Covenant process seemed to sustain something of a blow in Jamaica I was enjoying a the kindly light of Oxford's Newman Society at the Catholic Chaplaincy, where Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester who recently announced he is to retire to work with persecuted Christians, was speaking about the future of the Anglican Communion. The bishop was interviewed before he spoke by Michael Webb. Read on for some of my notes on his speech.
Bishop Michael spoke about the equal and opposite pulls in Anglicanism, towards the 'logic of Catholicism' or the 'logic of fragmentation'.
'The question now arises, which logic will prevail. It is quite possible that the logic of fragmentation will prevail and people will go their own way. Or it may be that the Anglicans will see their way to the Catholic Church, to God's will as expressed in Christ's highly prescient prayer for the unity of Christians across the ages and throughout the world.
'Anglicans to their credit have never claimed to be the one, true Church.' He noted that successive Lambeth Conferences had accepted that Anglicanism stands ready to disappear in the cause of Catholic unity, 'that is, it [Anglicanism] is not an end to itself but a means towards the greater Catholicism which is God's will.'

Read in full on Ruth Gledhill's blog Articles of Faith.