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‘Churches back plan to unite under Pope’


This post was published on Monday 19 February 2007.

Today in The Times I was somewhat shocked to read the front-page headline: ‘Churches back plan to unite under Pope. It seemed from the article that at some point in the next few months there was a real chance that the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches might unite.

This, of course, is not the case. The Anglican Communion News Service released the following statement:

Clarifications etc.

The statement makes clear that the document in question, Growing Together in Unity and Mission is ‘an attempt to synthesize the work of ARCIC (the Anglican - Roman Catholic International Commission) over the past 35 years.’

So unity isn’t imminent, then! The document ‘identifies the level of agreement which has been reached by ARCIC, but is also very clear in identifying ongoing areas of disagreement, and in raising questions which still need to be addressed in dialogue.’

Today was obviously a slow day for the news men at The Times. But there is no excuse for such sensationalism. It’s tabloid journalism, certainly not what you’d expect from The Times. It could even be seen as dishonest, deliberately mis-reporting (if that’s a word) a fairly unsensational document.

I shall let the press release have the last word:

‘It is unfortunate that [the] contents [of the document] have been prematurely reported in a way which misrepresents its intentions and sensationalises its conclusions.’