THE Catholic Church's work towards unity should not give Protestants an excuse to sit back and wait. the general secretary of the British Council of Churches, said in Guildford Cathedral last week. The Rev. Kenneth Slack. a Presbyterian minister, said; "Even son of my Roman Catholic friends who are deeply committed
u
to nity ask us to be Patient with them. They talk of 100 years before that great Church can fully share our purposes of unity.
"Must all acts of unity — of reunion — wait for such a time? To delay is wholly to mistake Rome's reactions "All the evidence is that Rome positively reassessed the ecumenical movement when she saw us n
getting on with the job, being discontented with a divided Church, and set to work to heal the breaches."
Hesaid Catholic efforts towards unity have had four main results: 1 Opening the door to simple • friendship.
st g"difficulties" — for • instance. by "the remarkable change in the attitude to religious liberty and the beginning of a change in regard to simple acts of united worship." ft "Emergence from the shadows of Roman ecumenical pioneers." 4 "A new assessment by Rome of what the other Churches have been doing in this ecumenical movement."