Windsor Statement

This agreed statement on eucharistic doctrine was finalized by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) at Windsor in 1971. It was eventually included within the ARCIC Final Report (1982). The commission reached consensus on the eucharist as sacrifice and the real presence. An “Elucidation” issued by the commission in 1979 explained that it had reached “unanimous agreement 'on essential matters where it considers that doctrine admits no divergence,'” although it believed that there could still be “a divergence in matters of practice and in theological judgments relating to them.” The 1979 General Convention of the Episcopal Church went on to affirm that the Windsor Statement “provide[s] a statement of the faith of this Church in the matters concerned and form[s] a basis upon which to proceed in furthering the growth towards unity of the Episcopal Church with the Roman Catholic Church.” Likewise the official response of the 1988 Lambeth Conference found the Windsor Statement, together with the Elucidation, to be “consonant in substance with the faith of Anglicans and . . . a sufficient basis for taking the next step forward towards the reconciliation of our Churches grounded in agreement in faith.” However, the Vatican's definitive response to the Final Report, finally released in 1991, raised a number of unresolved objections. These objections were answered in the United States by ARC-USA on Jan. 7, 1994, in five “Affirmations on the Eucharist as Sacrifice,” agreed to unanimously.