CONFERENCE IN COMMEMORATION OF ABBÉ PAUL IRÉNÉE COUTURIER 1881-1953, in association with the Society of St John Chrysostom and the London Branch of the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius

The Woldingham Conference of the Society, sponsored by the London Branch, was held in the delightfully rural setting of Woldingham School, a Catholic Girls’ independent school, from Tuesday 26 to Friday 29 August. The idea of the conference was conceived by our indefatigable Associate General Secretary, Joe Farrelly. Amanda Hill heroically took responsibility for most of the ‘on the spot’ administration while David Carter helped with the planning of the programme and organising the chairing of sessions. We owe a particular debt of gratitude to Amanda who did considerable amounts of ferrying both of members and speakers to and from the Station.

The Conference commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the great French ecumenical pioneer, the Abbe Paul Couturier. It tuned in nicely with the activities of Couturier Links of Ecumenical Fellowship earlier in the year and indeed the organiser of the latter, Fr Mark Woodruff, was present with us.

Canon Richard Rutt, as one who had actually met the Abbe, gave us an excellent paper on him, stressing his deep spirituality and breadth of sympathy. He told us that, later in life, it took the Abbe two hours to say mass simply because of the sheer number of friends he wanted to commemorate at the ‘memento. He told us of how the Abbe had written to the mother of a Communist, jailed and killed by the Gestapo. The young man had been killed and the Abbe had written to his mother, extolling his commitment to justice and love.

Later, Fr Richard’s wife, Joan Rutt, gave us an account of her years at St Basil’s House, working for the fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius, an organisation that had flourished so strongly at the time of the Abbe’s ecumenical activity.

We were very sad to hear that the sudden illness of his wife, Rachel, prevented Dr John Newton from giving us his promised and eagerly awaited paper on the ‘Liverpool experience’, his partnership with Derek Warlock and David Sheppard. We prayed for John, and for Rachel, who has since recovered. David Carter conducted two short informal sessions, one on Ecumenical News in which he shared with us the importance of the Charta Oecumenica in improving relations between small minority and large majority churches on the Continent, and one, it being the tercentenary of his birth, on the significance of John Wesley for the Universal Church.

Fr John Salter, now a Melkite priest, gave us an illuminating and amusing account of some of the Anglican clergy of the inter-war period who had been involved in contacts with the Christian East, mentioning in particular the late Fr Fynes Clinton.

We began with a paper by another Eastern rite Catholic, and great friend of the Society, Archimandrite Serge Keleher, who explained in great detail all the problematic circumstances that had hindered and impeded Catholic-Orthodox dialogue. David Carter gave us an account of Orthodox-Methodist dialogue which has similarly been impeded, whilst being carried on informally and unofficially under the auspices of a joint initiative of St Vladimir’s and the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

On the Thursday evening, Dwight Longenecker, a well known Catholic lay writer, presented us with a very interesting example of Catholic-evangelical dialogue on the subject of the Assumption of Mary.

Peter Sibley gave us a very carefully researched paper on two Marian tracts, one anonymous and by an Anglican, one by a Catholic from the turn of the eighteenth century. Amanda gave us a paper on Fr Ignatius Spencer, the Passionist father and another significant, if somewhat forgotten pioneer for unity. She delivered this with great gusto and enthusiasm. Beautifully clear and concise were the contributions of Tom Bruch and Paul McPartlan. Tom, the Lutheran Secretary in Britain, introduced us comprehensively to the state of Lutheran ecumenical commitment and dialogue, updating us on very recent developments from the previous month’s Lutheran World Federation Assembly.

Paul’s talk, as was the case in the 1994 Congress when he also spoke last, was in many ways the highlight of the Conference as he expertly led us through recent ecumenical and Catholic reflection on the diaconate and pointed to its
pivotal potential both for mission and unity.

We were well looked after by the staff at the School. As always, there was an immense amount of informal interchange and fellowship and each session was followed by lively discussion. The company of about forty was an ideal size, allowing one to have some sort of a conversation with most people at some point or other. The very varied nature both of the programme and range of participants enriched the whole conference which was amongst the best we have had!

David Carter