Let us heed the call of the new Pope for ever greater unity
Announced at the same time as we were celebrating the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, this call for peace and unity is as timely as it urgent. It is a vision that all of us can unite around and I hope and pray not just for God's blessing upon Pope Leo's ministry as Bishop of Rome, but that he may by kindness, witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ and generous prophetic gesture continue the journey towards that unity that Jesus desires for his church in the way of his most recent predecessors. What a gift that would be!
A gift, well chosen and well timed, can bring any of us to tears. Such gifts can be rare, but we value them all the more for it. Today, as we mark the election of Pope Leo XIV, I have also been thinking about one particular gift, given by Pope Paul VI to Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, back in 1966.
Ramsey was in Rome for the first official meeting between a Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury in more than 400 years. They led an ecumenical service together, they signed a Common Declaration, expressing desire for Christian unity and dialogue – but what brought Ramsey to tears was something he had never expected. The Pope took his hand, and placed on it his own episcopal ring, in effect recognising him as a fellow member of the episcopate. Ramsey wept, and they embraced, brothers in Christ.
Never caught on camera, this was one of the most quietly consequential moments in ecumenical history. And it came not in the form of words, but gesture.
Gestures, symbols, can often say more than words could ever hope to – the late Pope showed us, through his 'pequeños gestos', that small gestures can carry great meaning – and this particular gift began a long process of rapprochement that has lasted, and flourished, to this day. Gesture has remained at the heart of its success.
In 2016, the 50th anniversary of this meeting was commemorated in Rome. Pope Francis gave Justin Welby a crozier, modelled on the crozier of St Gregory the Great, the Pope who sent Augustine to be the Apostle to the English, and first Archbishop of Canterbury. Evoking our common origin and shared history, it was a gift that helped weave the threads of our stories back together.
The archbishop gave Pope Francis a Coventry Cross of Nails, a symbol of reconciliation between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, after centuries of division and conflict. He did so wearing Pope Paul's ring, as Archbishops of Canterbury now do whenever they meet the Pope.
And together, on the spot where Pope Gregory sent Augustine out to the English, they sent out pairs of Anglican and Catholic bishops to minister alongside each other across the world – a demonstration of how the Church can act as one in God's service.
It is in gestures like these that the path to unity lies. Though we have undoubted divisions and disagreements, these gestures demonstrate that they are not insurmountable. They allow us to show our intentions to one another, bare our heart to one another, and to recognise that, despite our differences, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.
For ecumenism is not something we simply talk about – it is something we show, something we do. As the late Pope said to me when we met, it is about working together, walking together, and praying together.
And so we welcome Pope Leo XIV as our brother in Christ. We hope that this relationship may continue to flourish over his pontificate, and that we may continue to work, walk, and pray together, and find our way along the path to unity. As the Pope reminded us yesterday, we must build bridges, show the light of Jesus Christ, live in his peace and share the good news of his love with all people.
We hold out our hand to Pope Leo in a gesture of friendship, and echo the words of his predecessor: 'Let us never grow tired of asking the Lord, together and insistently, for the gift of unity'.
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