Dr Rowan Williams accept Pope as “Holy Father”

The Anglican Archbishop was invited to the Roman Catholic Synod of Bishops for the new evangelization, to express his views on the Second Vatican Council. Rowan Williams addressed the Pope as “You holiness”, and underlined the need for full Church unity.

The Anglican head bow and kiss the ring of the Pope. A sign of submission.

“Praying together isn’t just a casual thing, a marginal activity,” he said.

When divided Christians “share the prayer of the Church”, even if they cannot share the fullness of that prayer in the Eucharist, they are placing themselves before God together and showing the world what it means to be Christian.

Preparing to retire, he said he obviously was disappointed that efforts to promote full, visible Christian unity had not progressed further, but no one could deny that Christians pray and work together today in a way that would have been unimaginable in the 1950s.

This is the exact words of Williams, in his address to the Pope:

” I am deeply honoured by the Holy Father’s invitation to speak in this gathering: as the Psalmist says, ‘Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum habitare fratres in unum’ [How good and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity].The gathering of bishops in Synod for the good of all Christ’s people is one of those disciplines that sustain the health of Christ’s Church”.


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