The recent visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury – Justin Welby’s second since he and Pope Francis began their respective missions in the same week in March 2013 – placed in the spotlight the relationship between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church across the world. One of the key instruments of that relationship is the Anglican Centre in Rome, whose Director, Archbishop Sir David Moxon (formerly Anglican Primate of New Zealand), is also the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Personal Representative to the Holy See.
The British Embassy to the Holy See represents the British Crown and government, and we do not interfere in relations between the two Churches. At the same time, we do see our job as helping to facilitate that relationship, on the basis of the deep historical ties between the two communions, the role of The Queen as Supreme Governor of the Church of England (the “mother Church” of Anglicanism, itself now present in 39 Metropolitan Provinces and 165 countries around the world), and the intrinsic value of good ecumenical relations as an aid to peace and prosperity in many countries across the world, from South Sudan to Sri Lanka.
The Anglican Centre was born out of the Second Vatican Council, in particular the ground-breaking 1964 Decree Unitatis Redintegratio (‘Restoring Unity’) which opened the way to better relations between the principal Christian churches; and the 1966 visit by Archbishop Michael Ramsay to Rome, the first ever official and public visit by an Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. Since then, the Centre has been a focal point for the global Anglican Communion as a point of entry for understanding Roman Catholicism, and vice versa a place where Rome-based Catholics can learn about Anglicanism. It has spearheaded ecumenical initiatives, hosted the many visits to Rome since 1966 by successive Archbishops of Canterbury, and recently led the way in close collaboration with the Holy See in the creation of the Global Freedom Network against human trafficking, an ecumenical and inter-faith response to the global scourge of Modern Slavery.
The Pope has spoken about the “scandal” of Christian disunity, and the need for the different faiths to talk more often together. The Anglican Centre in Rome is a tangible example of the efforts being undertaken to repair at least one of the historical breaches in global religion that dog us into the 21st century. As such, it is a valuable partner for the embassy and an essential presence at the heart of the global Holy See network.