Thursday, November 14, 2013

Welby tells of longing for church unity

Click to enlargeTHE Archbishop of Canterbury has called on the international Church to renew its "commitment to the ecumenical journey" at the tenth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) at Busan, in South Korea.

Archbishop Welby spoke of his "tiny place among God's great Church", but said that his presence at the assembly in Busan was a sign of how important the fellowship was to Anglicans.

"We cannot be satisfied while there is a lack of visible unity," he said. "If we are satisfied, we defy the great high-priestly prayer of Christ himself."

Christians must seek peace and reconciliation, Archbishop Welby said - first between themselves and God, and then in unity with each other.

"We are to be one because we are more effective together than apart," he said. "We are to be one - one people worshipping one God, eating and drinking round the one table of the Lord; for that is Jesus's prayer for his disciples, then and for us now."

Archbishop Welby spoke at the assembly as part of a five-day tour of South Korea which included a pilgrimage to the Imjingak Peace Park, close to the border with North Korea, where the Archbishop and others prayed for peace in the Korean Peninsula.

In an interview with Vatican Radio while he was in Busan, Archbishop Welby said that a longing to unite the worldwide Church was the work of the Holy Spirit. "No sacrifice is too great to be obedient to the call of Christ that we may be one," he said; but there were many doctrinal differences between the Churches which still needed to be worked on.

The theme of the WCC assembly was "God of life, lead us to justice and peace". Dr Wedad Abbas Tawfik of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria in Egypt asked delegates to pray for peace in her nation, but said that the Coptic Church had continued to be a witness to God despite violent persecution.

In a session on mission, the Revd Dr Stephen Bevans, a Roman Catholic priest from the US congregation of the Society of the Divine Word, quoted the former Archbishop of Caterbury Lord Williams: "Mission is finding out where the Spirit at work, and joining in."