Pairs of Anglican and Catholic bishops from across the world have made a pilgrimage to St Peter’s Basilica today as part of a weeklong ecumenical summit called Growing Together, run by IARCCUM (International Anglican–Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission). It aims to strengthen bonds of friendship between Anglicans and Roman Catholics as they explore their joint witness and mission.

On the evening of January 23, set within the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the bishops participated in Anglican Choral Evensong in the Choir Chapel of St Peter’s. This was an important occasion in ecumenical relations. Traditional Anglican Evensong was celebrated previously in St Peter’s in 2017.

As one of the most important Christian places of pilgrimage, St Peter’s is believed to have been built over the burial site of the Apostle Peter, the head of the twelve Apostles of Jesus and, according to tradition, the first Bishop of Antioch and later the first Bishop of Rome, thus the first Pope.

Today, during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, bishops from the Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions are gathering for Growing Together – a week–long summit for ecumenical discussion and pilgrimage in Rome and Canterbury between 22 and 29 January 2024 (arrivals day 22).   

The Summit is organised by IARCCUM, the International Anglican–Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission. IARCCUM is an official commission of the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church. It is established to deepen the relationship between Anglicans and Catholics, based on the significant degree of theological agreement that has been reached over the years of dialogue and to promote shared mission. It is supported by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome and the Anglican Communion Office, Secretariat to the Anglican Communion. 

The aim of this week’s summit is to strengthen bonds of friendship and commitment between Anglicans and Catholics for joint witness and mission in a fragmented world.  The bishops are attending in Anglican and Catholic pairs. They will work towards a joint statement outlining how they will seek to walk together in mission and witness when they return home and particularly how they will encourage their colleagues to unite in greater collaboration between Anglicans and Catholics. 

Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury will jointly commission bishops from the Anglican and Catholic traditions for a shared mission and witness during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

This event is part of the Growing Together summit, taking place during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity from January 22 to 29 in Rome and Canterbury. The summit during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an international Christian ecumenical observance, will bring together over 50 bishops from Anglican and Catholic traditions, representing 27 countries. The bishops will visit holy sites, engage in ecumenical discussions, and reflect on ways to grow together in joint witness and mission globally.

The commissioning ceremony near the tomb of the Apostle Paul will be a significant moment symbolizing the bonds between Anglicans and Catholics and promoting further ecumenical dialogue. Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury will commission the bishops, sending them out in pairs, to be witnesses to Christian Unity.

The bishops will also explore St. Peter‘s Basilica with a guided tour and attend an Anglican Choral Evensong service; visit the Church of San Bartolomeo, where the Archbishop of Canterbury will lead and preach at a sung Anglican Eucharist; visit the Church of San Gregorio al Celio, the place from where the first Archbishop of Canterbury was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great in 597.

In Rome on January 25, Pope Francis and Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury will come together for vespers, marking the conclusion of the week of prayer as well as celebrating the strong sense of fraternal charity among bishops from their respective churches.

The summit is organized by IARCCUM, the International Anglican–Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, dedicated to fostering ecumenical dialogue between the two traditions.

Anglican and Catholic bishops to meet in Rome and Canterbury for the ecumenical summit “Growing Together” – during Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 22–29, 2024).
Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury will commission bishops for joint mission and witness (January 25).

Meeting during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, bishops from the Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions will be gathering for Growing Together – a week–long summit for ecumenical discussion and pilgrimage in Rome and Canterbury between 22 and 29 January 2024. The bishops will come in pairs – Anglican and Catholic – representing different countries from around the world. Over 50 bishops are participating, from 27 countries. Visiting holy sites in both Rome and Canterbury, the bishops will pray, reflect and learn from one another. The aim is to discuss ways of growing together in joint witness and mission in the world. On January 25, near the tomb of the Apostle Paul, Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury will commission the bishops, sending them out in pairs, to be witnesses to Christian Unity. This will be a significant moment, symbolic for Anglican–Catholic bonds and advancing ecumenical dialogue.

The Summit is organised by IARCCUM – the International Anglican–Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission. IARCCUM is an official commission of the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church, established to promote ecumenical dialogue between the traditions.

This year the theme of the week of prayer for Christian Unity is “go and do likewise” words chosen of course from the beautiful parable of the Good Samaritan.

And he‘s never afraid to go back to fundamentals, so he goes back to what is still the daily prayer of Jews around the world “the Shema.”

And we did say in our Patrick‘s Day message a few years ago as church leaders that we‘ve often become a slave to the Past.

Hello everyone, Archbishop Eamon Martin here along with Archbishop John McDowell in Armagh and we‘ve just decided to have a conversation together about the week of prayer for Christian Unity which takes place every year from the 18th to the 25th of January. And we were just reflecting there that this year the theme of the week of prayer for Christian Unity is “go and do likewise,” words chosen of course from the beautiful parable of the Good Samaritan. And this year, the resources have been prepared by the Christian churches in Burkina Faso. And we thought it would be a good idea, John and I here, just to have a conversation about the week of prayer for Christian unity in the context of these resources. The parable of the Good Samaritan, of course, very well known by all of us.

Sister Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ is a French Catholic religious sister and Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, Rome. In this lecture she will reflect on the Synod of the Catholic Church, ‘For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission’, its themes, its potential, and its call to the whole Church.

A major leap forward in Christian unity began with an embrace, as Pope Francis recalled.

St. Paul VI and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople met, and embraced, in Jerusalem in January 1964 and the following year they lifted the mutual excommunications their churches had issued in 1054.

Pope Francis marked the anniversary during his Angelus address Jan. 6, 2024 telling a crowd in St. Peter’s Square that the two leaders had broken down “a wall of incommunicability that had kept Catholics and Orthodox apart for centuries. Let us learn from the embrace of those two great men of the church on the path to Christian unity: praying together, walking together, working together.”

The praying, walking and working will be highlighted Jan. 18–25 as Christians around the world celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

We are sorry to report the sad news that Bishop Paride Taban, an ecumenical pioneer and courageous peace–builder, died on the feast of All Saints.

Bishop Taban was born in 1936 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1964 and to the episcopate in 1980, becoming an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Juba. In 1983 he became the first bishop of the diocese of Torit in which rule he served until retirement in 2004.

In 1989, when the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) overran Torit, Bishop Taban was arrested along with three other Catholic priests. However, he was able to continue to minister under rebel rule. In 1990 the Sudan Council of Churches was formed, with Bishop Taban becoming its first leader. The body was immediately involved in peace talks.

The Anglican–Roman Catholic Dialogue in Canada (ARC) has met regularly since 1971. It works closely with the Anglican–Roman Catholic Bishops’ Dialogue (ARC–B), which was established in 1975. Supported by the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the mandate of both Dialogues is to advance ecumenical understanding and cooperation between the churches in our country. In recent years, the Anglican contingent on ARC has also added members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) as an expression of the deepening full communion relationship between the ACC and ELCIC.

The Anglican Centre in Rome is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of its famous John Moorman Library with an exhibition of some of its most treasured items. The exhibition, which is being opened by the Archbishop of Cantebrury, Justin Welby, this morning (Saturday 30 September) will highlight the library’s ecumenical missionary endeavours.

The exhibition will include new artworks commissioned for the anniversary and inspired by the library’s rich history and collection.

The Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, Archbishop Ian Ernest, said: “this exhibition is made up of the library’s most treasured material, along with contributions of created artworks by international artists inspired by the library’s history and collection, highlighting the Anglican Centre’s ecumenical missionary endeavours and bearing witness to the quest of God’s people on their journey towards unity.”

Church leaders from Ireland have gathered in Rome to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

In a joint statement, the Irish and British Ambassadors to the Holy See, Frances Collins and Chris Tott, said that they were delighted to welcome the leaders from several denominations.

“For decades, the Churches have played an important role in supporting peace and reconciliation,” they said, expressing hope that visit would “serve to inspire other church and faith–based leaders as they work to support peace and reconciliation around the world.”

The presence of Reformed churches in Rome is being strengthened through the appointment of Tara Curlewis in a dual–serving capacity.

Curlewis, an ordained minister in the Uniting Church in Australia, will serve in two roles: as the new minister of the Church of Scotland’s St. Andrew’s Church and as the Reformed Ecumenical Officer for the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC).

She said she was looking forward to taking up a calling that is grounded in an international and multicultural congregation and “exercising ministry in an exciting ecumenical setting.”

Curlewis said ecumenism “is in her DNA” and churches are “at their best when their voices unite to advocate for shared concerns together.”

“When I am in the ecumenical spaces, I am filled with an inner stirring of God’s perichoresis and have a sense of that same stirring as I prepare to take up the role in Rome, which provides strategic opportunities to uphold and promote the concerns of the Reformed churches,” she said.

Bishop David Hamid, suffragan bishop of the Diocese in Europe and one of the longest serving bishops in the Church of England, has announced his plans to retire in February 2024.

Bishop David said: “For over 20 years I have been blessed to have one of the most fulfilling and enriching jobs in the Church. At times the Diocese in Europe is difficult to explain to outsiders and to many in other parts of the Church of England, but I can sum up from my experience that it is a family, a family of committed and loving people, a truly rich and diverse, if scattered community, which seeks to live the Christian life in the Anglican way. The diocese embodies a profound vision of ecumenical outreach and collaboration and is a beautiful multicultural and multiethnic mosaic. These particular aspects of her life are very close to my own heart and have added to my joy in serving the diocese as one of its bishops.

Ecumenism and the search for Christian unity are no mere niche interest, the Anglican Church of Canada’s lead animator for ecumenical and interfaith relations Canon Scott Sharman says, but rather “an essential part of being a disciple of Jesus today”—and ecumenical agreements between churches in countries like Canada may soon become more common.

Sharman was responding to the Lambeth call on Christian unity, one of 10 statements drafted by committees of Anglican bishops from around the world, laying out priorities for the Anglican Communion. Each call is expected to be shaped in response to feedback: an earlier version of the calls served as the basis for discussion at the 2022 Lambeth Conference, a gathering of 650 bishops from across the Anglican Communion; this spring, an updated version was released based on that discussion. Now, Anglicans worldwide are invited to share their own feedback through a series of webinars.

The Lambeth call on Christian unity in its 2022 version urged the Anglican Communion to renew its “commitment to an urgent search for the full visible unity of the Church”; and for Anglicans to build relationships with other churches in their provinces, working with them to proclaim the gospel and respond to the needs of world. It asked Anglicans to learn from other Christian traditions and seek dialogue to overcome theological and ecclesiological differences; to speak up for those suffering persecution; and to establish relationships of communion with other churches.

An historic agreement to recognise and celebrate the significance of the holy well and Shrine to Saint Winefride in Holywell has been signed by the local Roman Catholic and Anglican Bishops.

The Bishop of Wrexham and the Bishop of St Asaph have pledged to work co–operatively towards the development of the whole site in Holywell as an integrated place of worship, pilgrimage and tourism, while maintaining the distinctive tradition of worship associated with the Shrine. The two bishops, Rt Revd Peter Brignall and Rt Revd Gregory Cameron signed a statement of intent (in full below) during a service in the Beaufort Chapel of St James’ Church yesterday (Wednesday 12 July).

The site of the ancient Shrine to St Winefride comprises the holy well and associated buildings and St James’ Church, the historic centre of Anglican worship in Holywell. The Shrine has been a continuous place of Roman Catholic devotion for 1400 years.

Is it time for a game changer in relations between the Churches? There are already signs of the times pointing to a better way forward. The joint mission of the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to South Sudan was a powerful symbol of what church leaders can achieve when they work together. The visit of the Archbishop of York to Pope Francis in Rome was another indication that ecumenism still has plenty of potential. Archbishop Stephen Cottrell said afterwards that one of the biggest mistakes that Christians have made is to talk, write and confer about church unity “rather than seeing it as something that we must do.” He is right, though talking and writing have their place. And conferring.

The Malines Conversations Group, an unofficial theological dialogue of Catholic and Anglican theologians, met in St Paul’s Bay, Malta, from 20 to 26 May 2023. This was the ninth meeting of the group, named in honour of the original Malines Conversations of the 1920s. These early informal conversations, held between a small group of British Anglicans and European Catholics, were made possible by the bonds of friendship between the members of the group. In that spirit, despite some disruption caused by COVID–19, the current Malines Conversations Group has been gathering annually, always in early spring, alternately in Anglican and Roman Catholic venues.

Archbishop Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York in the Church of England, is leading a delegation on a visit to Rome from May 20–24. As part of their journey, they have visited the Basilicas of St Peters and St Paul Outside the Walls, where they spent time praying in the crypts. Prayer at the tombs of the apostles is a traditional focus of pilgrimage to Rome.

On Sunday, the delegation attended All Saints Anglican Church, an English parish in the heart of Rome where the Archbishop preached. He also preached at the Anglican Centre in Rome on Tuesday. Other visits will be to the Community of Sant’Egidio, a lay Roman Catholic association dedicated to social service; the Benedictine monastery of San Gregorio al Celio, in Rome, from which Pope St Gregory sent St Augustine to Canterbury; and the Venerable English College, a seminary training English and Welsh Roman Catholic priests.

The highlight of their trip was a private audience with Pope Francis in the Apostolic Palace. Archbishop Cottrell said that his audience with Pope Francis, at which he was accompanied by his chaplain, the Revd Dr Jenny Wright, and his wife, Rebecca, had “further consolidated the strong bonds of friendship between our two World Communions. We are now looking forward, for further cooperation between the Dicasteries of the Vatican and the Anglican Centre in Rome.” Archbishop Ian Ernest, director of the Anglican Centre in Rome and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Holy See, accompanied them on their visit. The delegation was also accompanied by Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and Revd Martin Browne OSB, the Dicastery official responsible for relations with Anglicans.

When King Charles III and his wife, Queen Consort Camila, are crowned on Saturday, the event will mark a historic juncture in Catholic–Anglican relations, as it will be the first time a Catholic bishop has participated in the ceremony in four centuries.

In a May 5 statement, the Archdiocese of Westminster in the UK, overseen by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, called Saturday’s coronation “an historic occasion for the nation, and also for the Catholic community.”

“For the first time in over 400 years, a Catholic Archbishop will take part in a Coronation in this country,” the statement said, referring to the fact that Nichols has not only been invited to attend the ceremony, but he will also give a blessing.

Other Catholic representatives at the coronation will be Vatican Secretary of State Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the newly–appointed apostolic nuncio to Great Britain, Spanish Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, as well as Archbishop Mark O’Toole of Cardiff, Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen, Scotland, and the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, Eamon Martin.

The Cross of Wales, a new processional cross presented by King Charles III as a centenary gift to the Church in Wales, will lead the Coronation procession at Westminster Abbey on 6 May.

In a significant ecumenical gesture, the Cross of Wales incorporates a relic of the True Cross, the personal gift of Pope Francis to the King to mark the Coronation. The relics, set into the silver cross, are two small wooden splinters from the cross on which Christ was crucified.

Words from the last sermon of St David are chased on the back of the Cross in Welsh: “Byddwch lawen. Cadwch y ffydd. Gwnewch y Pethau Bychain”, which translates as: “Be joyful. Keep the faith. Do the little things.” The Cross was blessed by the Archbishop of Wales, Andrew John, at Holy Trinity Church, Llandudno, on April 19. It will be officially received by the Church in Wales at a service to follow the Coronation and its use going forward will be shared between the Anglican and Catholic Churches in Wales.