Ecumenism at a Crossroads: ‘Critical Factors’ in the Reception of Mission and Ministry in Covenant

Abstract The 2017 report on the interchangeability of ordained ministries by the joint Faith and Order bodies of the Church of England and the Methodist Church of Great Britain presented those churches with a fundamental decision about the direction of the Covenant relationship. With that decision deferred, it is important to understand the critical factors that contributed to the failure to gain sufficient momentum for the report’s proposals to proceed. This article argues that, in the case of the Church of England, alongside the more obvious conflicts regarding theological convictions around ordained ministry, the priority of mission for ecclesiology in doctrine and practice exercised a pervasive influence on the report’s formation and reception, raising fresh questions about how to describe the goal of unity that the Faith and Order bodies were ultimately unable to answer. Without sustained attention to the relationship between these three factors, it is unlikely that resistance to progress on the reconciliation of ministries can be overcome, in this and other contexts of ecumenical dialogue.