The stages of dividing the Church are not the same as those of mending it. Not least among the differences is the shifting of priorities which makes unity an overriding consideration, where some other leading idea had previously seemed more important, even if that meant division. At present we are in an era where there is more rapprochement than separation. The truth must surely be that all right priorities are reconcilable, and we ought not to seek to choose between them but to find them harmonious with apostolic faith and order. That requires a synthesis.

The achievement of communion by successive approximation is, in practice, proving to be the method both of local ecumenism; and of those engaged in international bilateral and multilateral dialogues, as they begin to turn their minds towards practical steps which can make the one visible Church a reality. This is in accord with the Lund principle of ‘doing together all that we can’, with the ‘all’ enlarging as churches grow closer. But it carries dangers.

The first is that an incomplete union may seem satisfactory; with the result that the process may halt somewhere along the way. There is a risk of diminishing the great vision of one communion in one Church, so that it is lost sight of in the immediate pleasure of growing mutual warmth, and the great hope sacrificed for the present achievement.