Lambeth Palace has confirmed that Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally will visit Rome from Saturday, 25th April, to Tuesday, 28th April. During her visit, the Archbishop will meet with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican and worship with the Anglican churches in Rome.

The Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury have exchanged letters expressing their commitment to Christian unity and Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue.

Pope Leo XIV wrote to Archbishop Sarah Mullally on the occasion of her Installation, which was held at Canterbury Cathedral on Wednesday. The Pope said that he prayed she might “be guided by the Holy Spirit” and “draw inspiration from the example of Mary, the Mother of God.”

The Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury have exchanged letters expressing their commitment to Christian unity and Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue.

The greetings come as Lambeth Palace confirms today that Archbishop Sarah Mullally will visit Rome from 25 – 28th April. During the visit the Archbishop will meet with Pope Leo at the Vatican.

Pope Leo XIV wrote to Archbishop Sarah Mullally on the occasion of her Installation, which was held at Canterbury Cathedral yesterday. The Pope said he prayed she might “be guided by the Holy Spirit” and “draw inspiration from the example of Mary, the Mother of God.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally was installed March 25 at a service at Canterbury Cathedral that was attended by leaders from across the Anglican Communion, including Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe and several other representatives from The Episcopal Church.

The ceremonial installation marks the start of Mullally’s public ministry. As the 106th archbishop of Canterbury and the first woman to hold that office, she acknowledged that history and her unlikely path to this moment in her sermon.

“I make this journey both on a personal level … but more significantly I make this journey with others and in the footsteps of the past,” she said, mentioning Thomas Becket, who served as archbishop of Canterbury 850 years ago. “Today, I think of the many thousand unknown Christians who have trodden these same paths since, and not just on this ancient land, but all across the world. People walk the pilgrim paths of faith each and every day.”

Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp has challenged Rome to push forward with synodal reforms by announcing changes including the ordination of married men in his diocese by 2028.

Carefully quoting guidelines for the Synod on Synodality’s implementation phase (2025-2028), his 11-page pastoral letter proposed the viri probati reform alongside the naming of woman pastors, a new understanding of parishes, welcoming new Catholics and updating the Church’s message.

In a communiqué marking what it says is a “historic day for the Global Anglican Communion”, Gafcon has announced that it has dissolved its Primates Council to replace it with a new Global Anglican Council, chaired by the Archbishop of Rwanda, Dr Laurent Mbanda.

It has made the “unprecedented” decision, it says, to “share its stewardship of the Global Anglican Communion by creating the Global Anglican Council, which includes primates, advisors, and guarantors, which will include bishops, clergy, and lay members, each with full voting privileges”.

The dissolving of the Primates Council, set up in 2008, reflects, the communiqué says, “the willingness of the Primates to share their authority with a wider group of global Anglican leaders, both lay and clergy”.

This June in Belfast, the 19th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council will be invited to consider resolutions emerging from The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals and a Supplement Paper of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO). Developed as an ‘offer’ to the Communion, the NCPs is a theological paper that offers a framework for fostering Christian unity and deepening communion amid difference. The proposals seek to encourage Anglican churches to ‘make room for one another’ and to recall their commitment to the unity and healing of the whole Church.

The Anglican Consultative Council facilitates the cooperative work of the member churches of the Anglican Communion in the areas of mission and unity. Every member church of the Anglican Communion is entitled to send 2-3 representatives to meetings, which include bishops, clergy and lay people.