In an interview with the French weekly newspaper "La Vie" (Thursday), Archbishop Justin Welby said that the primacy of the Pope works very differently today than it did before the Reformation.
During Welby's joint trip with Pope Francis and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to South Sudan last year, it was clear to the other two "that Pope Francis was the first of the three of us".
The order of precedence was accepted by all without regret or reservation.
"But there was also no doubt that we would work together, not on a hierarchical basis, but with him as the first among equals, the eldest among equals," said Welby, who as Archbishop of Canterbury is Primate of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Unity is not unanimity
Welby sees unity as one of the greatest spiritual challenges for Christianity as a whole. It is the will of Christ that Christians should be one.
"However, unity is not unanimity: the greatest spiritual challenge is to love one another in our diversity. We must not believe that our own witness is the only one that counts and risk breaking with the other," explained the Archbishop.
In June, the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, which is responsible for ecumenism, presented proposals for a new understanding of the papal office in the document "The Bishop of Rome".
Reactions from the ecumenical world praised the document for its new perspectives on relations between the churches.
In particular, the willingness to reinterpret the doctrine on the position of the Pope, which was elevated to dogma at the First Vatican Council (1869-1870), met with approval.