THE 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."