A cross made from wood taken from a boat used by refugees crossing the Mediterranean as they sought sanctuary in Europe is to grace the altar of the Anglican Centre in Rome. The cross was made by artist Franco Tuccio on the Italian island of Lampedusa and resembles a pastoral staff given by the artist to Pope Francis.
25 May 2016
The Church of Scotland has this morning approved the Columba Declaration – an ecumenical agreement between it and the Church of England; and instructed the creation of an ecumenical “contact group” which would include representatives of the two churches and also the Scottish Episcopal Church.
25 May 2016
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, this morning became the first Archbishop of Canterbury to take part in a debate of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland when he addressed Commissioners in Edinburgh on the Columba Declaration ecumenical agreement. This is the text of his speech.
25 May 2016
The Anglican Archbishop of Dublin and Glendalough, Michael Jackson, has welcomed the announcement by the Vatican this morning that the Roman Catholic Church’s next World Meeting of Families will be held in Dublin in 2018. It will be the ninth such meeting to have taken place – the last one was in Philadelphia in 2015.
24 May 2016
The bones of Thomas Becket, the 12th Century Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered at the behest of King Henry II, are to return to the cathedral where he was killed and buried at the conclusion of Becket Week - an ecumenical series of events organised by the Hungarian government.
23 May 2016
Moves towards the mutual recognition and acceptance of Anglican and Methodist ministers in New Zealand have been delayed by at least two years after the Province’s General Synod heard that their Council for Ecumenism had not considered a report from the Anglican-Methodist Dialogue Group.
19 May 2016
After nearly 50 years of discourse between the Catholic and Anglican communions, the official dialogue body wants to fine-tune how it studies the differences and similarities between two churches which both call themselves catholic.
18 May 2016
About 23 years ago, says Archbishop David Moxon, formerly of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, he and the local Roman Catholic bishop made an agreement that still makes him feel hopeful. The two church heads decided to share the rite of imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday – a tradition that continues in New Zealand today.
16 May 2016
The week-long biennial meeting of the General Synod of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia gets underway tomorrow (Friday) and amongst the items for debate is the report by the “Way Forward Working Group” on the blessing of same-sex marriages.
05 May 2016
A call for Anglicans to commemorate next year’s 500th anniversary of the Reformation and the commendation of a number of new inter-denominational agreements and reports were amongst a raft of ecumenical resolutions adopted by the Anglican Consultative Council when they met in Lusaka, Zambia, earlier this month.
26 April 2016