The next phase of official dialogue between the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches will focus on Church as Communion  - Local and Universal.

The Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III) is scheduled to meet at the Monastery of Bose, northern Italy, from May 17-27 this year.

ARCIC III has two co-chairmen: the Most Rev David Moxon, Archbishop of the New Zealand dioceses (Anglican), and the Most Rev Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham, England (Roman Catholic).

ARCIC III will also look at How in communion the Local and Universal Church comes to discern right ethical teaching. Both questions on the agenda emerged from the Common Declaration of the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The ARCIC dialogue has been going for over 40 years. The first phase (ARCIC I), following the Second Vatican Council, focused on Sacraments and the Church and concluded in 1982. The second phase (ARCIC II), on The Church and the Blessed Virgin Mary, issued its last document in 2004. 

ARCIC III was mandated by Pope Benedict XVI and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, in Rome in November 2009. 

The international membership of ARCIC III represents a wide range of cultural settings and theological disciplines.

ARCIC III MEMBERS

ANGLICAN

• The Most Rev David Moxon, co-Chair, is the Bishop of Waikato and Archbishop of the Dioceses of New Zealand in the Province of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

• Dr. Paula Gooder, biblical scholar, is Canon Theologian of Birmingham Cathedral, Visiting lecturer at King's College, London, Associate lecturer at St Mellitus College, London, an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Birmingham and Senior Research Scholar at the Queen's Foundation, Birmingham, England.

• The Rt Rev Christopher Hill is the Bishop of Guildford and the Chair of the Council for Christian Unity of the Church of England.

• The Rev Dr Mark McIntosh is Van Mildert Canon Professor of Divinity in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Durham in England.

• The Rt Rev Nkosinathi Ndwandwe is Bishop Suffragan of Natal, Southern Area, in the Anglican Church  of Southern Africa.

• The Rt Rev Linda Nicholls is Area Bishop for the episcopal area of Trent-Durham in the Diocese of Toronto, Anglican Church of Canada.

• The Rev Dr Michael Poon is director and Asian Christianity coordinator of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in Asia at Trinity Theological College in Singapore, Province of South-East Asia.

• The Rev Canon Nicholas Sagovsky is retiring as Canon Theologian at Westminster Abbey in the Church of England.  An ecclesiologist, he served on ARCIC II.

• The Rev Dr Peter Sedgwick is Principal and Warden of St Michael’s College in Llandaff in the Church in Wales, where he teaches theology and social ethics.

• The Rev Dr Charles Sherlock is a consultant to ARCIC III.  He has recently retired as Registrar of the Melbourne College of Divinity and lives in the Diocese of Bendigo, Anglican Church of Australia.

ROMAN CATHOLIC

• The Most Rev Bernard Longley, co-Chair, is Archbishop of Birmingham, England, and  has previously served as Moderator of the Steering Committee of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, as well as Assistant General Secretary of Catholic Bishops' Conference with responsibilities for Ecumenism and Interfaith Affairs.

• The Rt Rev Arthur Kennedy is auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, and rector of St John’s seminary. He has previously been executive director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

• Professor Paul D. Murray is professor in the department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, and is a major proponent of receptive ecumenism.

• Prof Janet E. Smith is professor of moral theology and the Fr. Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Issues at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan, and is a consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Family.

• The Rev Vimal Tirimanna CSsR, from Colombo, Sri Lanka, is professor of systematic moral theology at the Alphonsianum University in Rome.     

• The Very Rev Dom Henry Wansbrough OSB, from Ampleforth Abbey, England, is a biblical scholar, and was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible.

• Sister Teresa Okure SHCJ is academic dean and professor of New Testament studies at the Catholic Institute of West Africa, based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

• Fr Adelbert Denaux is professor emeritus at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, where he taught biblical studies and ecumenism. He served on ARCIC II.    

The work of the Commission is supported by the co-secretaries, Monsignor Mark Langham (PCPCU) and Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan (Anglican Communion Office), and by Canon Jonathan Goodall, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Secretary for Ecumenical Affairs.