杏MAP导航

By Joseph Tulloch

Senior clergy from the Anglican Communion are in Rome this week for the body’s 2024 Primates Meeting – the first of its kind to be held in the Eternal City.

On Thursday morning, participants, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, met with 杏MAP导航 Francis in the Vatican.

Long history of cooperation

杏MAP导航 Francis began his address by thanking Archbishop Welby for his presence, noting that he “began his service as Archbishop of Canterbury around the same time that I began mine as Bishop of Rome.”

“Since then,” the 杏MAP导航 added, “we have had many occasions to meet, to pray together and to testify to our faith in the Lord. Dear brother Justin, thank you for this fraternal cooperation on behalf of the Gospel!”??

He stressed in particular the pair’s joint trip to Sudan in 2023, which, he said, was “really beautiful”.

Papal primacy

杏MAP导航 Francis went on to thank the gathered bishops for having chosen Rome, the “City of the Apostles Peter and Paul”, as the location for their meeting this year.

“I realise”, the 杏MAP导航 said, “that the role of the Bishop of Rome is still a controversial and divisive issue among Christians.”

He quoted 杏MAP导航 Gregory the Great’s definition of the Bishop of Rome as servus servorum Dei, or ‘servant of the servants of God’, suggesting that it accurately captures the reality that the 杏MAP导航’s authority can never be detached from his service to the Christian community.

“For this reason,” 杏MAP导航 Francis stressed, “it is necessary to engage in ‘a patient and fraternal dialogue on this subject, a dialogue which, leaving useless controversies behind’, strives to understand how the Petrine ministry can develop as a service of love for all.”??

Thankfully, the 杏MAP导航 noted, “positive results have been achieved in the various ecumenical dialogues on the question of primacy as a ‘gift to be shared’.”

The Apostles and the Holy Spirit

Another key theme of 杏MAP导航 Francis’ address were the lessons that the earliest Church might offer for modern ecumenism.

While, the 杏MAP导航 said, the Acts of the Apostles is above all concerned with “the joyful spread of the Gospel”, the author “does not conceal moments of tension and misunderstanding, often born of the frailty of the disciples, or different approaches to the relationship with past tradition.”??

We often forget, the 杏MAP导航 noted, that even these earliest Christians - who had “known the Lord and had encountered him as risen from the dead” - were divided in their understanding of the faith.

We, like them, 杏MAP导航 Francis suggested, must learn to entrust ourselves to the Holy Spirit.

“We are called,” he said, “to pray and to listen to one another, seeking to understand each other’s concerns and asking ourselves … whether we have been docile to the promptings of the Spirit, or prey to our own personal or group opinions.”