At a press conference to launch the report on March 21, John Hind, the Anglican Bishop of Europe, made clear his view that Roman Catholics were welcome to receive Anglican communion if their consciences permitted it. The Vatican, however, is not willing to allow sharing of communion with Anglican churches, mainly because it does not recognize Anglican ordinations, and is unlikely to do so. The ordination of women priests in most Anglican provinces has also complicated the question of intercommunion. A Church of England spokesman later confirmed that a similar practice applied in many dioceses although it had not been determined centrally. The document also echoes the policy of the Anglican Church in Ireland which prompted Cardinal Desmond Connell, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, to complain recently that Roman Catholics were being encouraged to break church rules by receiving Anglican communion.
Today there is a totally different climate.
We can approach these issues with a fair degree of honesty. It galvanizes Christians for witness and service in the world. There is real empowering in the Eucharist for all who are brought into communion with Christ and his people here. The document reiterates that the Church of England is a catholic and apostolic church, and points out that much of its theology of the Eucharist is the same as that of the Roman Catholic Church. One Bread One Body invited responses from other churches.