Ecumenism: An Episcopalian for the Pope

When San Francisco-area Episcopalians chose the Right Rev. C. Kilmer Myers as Bishop of California last September, there was some hope that he might prove a little less of a headlinemaker than his resigning predecessor, James A. Pike. No such luck. Soon after he was elected bishop, Myers denounced the Episcopal Church for being guilty of “the heresy of racism.” A fervent Viet Nam dove, Myers later attacked Francis Cardinal Spellman’s statements supporting the war as “outrageous,” and piously implored: “May God and Pope Paul forgive him.” Last week Myers suggested that all of Christianity should accept the Pope as its “spiritual leader.”

Preaching at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, Myers argued that the size and the scope of the problems facing Christianity made it imperative for the church to unite under a single authoritative spokesman. “We need the Pope,” he said, “because in this perilous age we need one symbolically potent bishop to give expression to the word of the Lord for our day,” Myers further argued that there can be no successful reunion of Christianity without the Pope as its visible center. He suggested that Protestants should leave such doctrinal problems as papal infallibility for the theologians to resolve.

Myers’ proposal was greeted warmly by San Francisco’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Joseph McGucken. “Do you want me to register a look of pleasant surprise?” he smilingly asked a press conference. Some Protestants and other Episcopalians were not so enthusiastic. Michigan’s Episcopal Bishop Richard Emrich, a convinced ecumenist himself, warned that “one of the great facts of the world is not that you desire unity but that there are real differences of belief.” One such difference was pointed out by the Rev. Carl Howie of San Francisco’s Calvary Presbyterian Church: “In a large segment of the Christian Church, we consider Jesus Christ the chief pastor.”