Pope Benedict XVI and Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury knelt together before the tomb of an 11th-century Christian king after affirming the need for Catholics and Anglicans to give a united witness to society. St. Edward the Confessor, who is buried in the Anglicans’ Westminster Abbey, reigned five centuries before English Christians became divided. The pope and the primate of the Church of England paid homage together to the Christian king Sept. 17 at the end of an afternoon that included public speeches, a 30-minute private meeting and a joint ecumenical prayer service in Westminster Abbey. Archbishop Williams welcomed Pope Benedict as the first pope ever to visit Westminster Abbey, which was home to a community of Catholic Benedictine monks until 1540 when King Henry VIII dissolved the monastic community. Beginning in the afternoon with a visit to Lambeth Palace, the archbishop’s residence, the pope told Anglican and Catholic bishops that he did not intend to discuss the difficulties the two communities have encountered on the path toward full unity, but rather to recognize the progress made in ecumenical relations and to encourage closer cooperation for the good of British society.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will today visit His Grace Archbishop Rowan Williams at the Archbishop’s London home, Lambeth Palace.

Together they will address a meeting of Anglican and Roman Catholic Diocesan Bishops from England, Scotland and Wales in the Great Hall of the Archbishop’s Library.

Recalling fifty years of significant meetings between successive popes and archbishops of Canterbury, Archbishop Williams will welcome Pope Benedict to Lambeth Palace before leading the bishops in an opening prayer.

In his address to the bishops (full text below), Dr Williams will stress the wider spiritual and missionary context in which ecumenical dialogue and growth in unity must take place. He will speak of the historic visit as “a special time of grace and of growth in our shared calling”, and express the hope that the occasion will be recognised as having “significance both to the Church of Christ and to British society”.