By a Staff Reporter pREACHERS should talk -L about religious doctrine as "seen through the spectrum of their own experiences," said Fr. Thomas Corbishley, S.J., in The Times on Monday in answer to Bishop Rudderham of Clifton's ban on pulpit exchanges.
Fr. Corbishley pointed out that the bishop had forbidden Catholic priests in his diocese to reciprocate preaching invitations with clergy of other Christian Churches because "there is really no point in asking them to say what we could just as well say ourselves.
"The point of inviting a preacher from another Church or Christian community," said Fr. Corbishley, "is that it gives us the opportunity of hearing the central Christian doctrine presented by a man who has not been to one of our theological colleges, read our manuals of theology or spirituality, been nourished in our tradition of worship.
"The fact that we shall find such a preacher not recognisably different from a Member of the home team should have profound advantages for us."
However, said Fr. Corbishley, the real differences in belief must not be underplayed. He pointed out as "significant" the fact that non•Catholic preachers were still excluded from preaching at Catholic Eucharistic services.
Such "inter communion" was also rejected by the Vatican Secretary for Christian Unity at an inter-Church conference in Paris last week. "Inter communion," said Bishop Willebrands, by its very name implies a harmful compromise.
The only proper aim among the Churches, he went on, must be real communion, not a temporary and ambiguous parley.