wfn.org | Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Visits Anglican Centre of Rome

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Visit of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at the Anglican Centre of Rome

Posted On : July 10, 2009 4:22 PM | Posted By : Admin ACO
Related Categories: Europe

ACNS: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2009/7/10/ACNS4639

In Italy for a round of engagements including addressing the G8 Meeting,
Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, seized the opportunity to visit
the Anglican Centre in Rome. The Centre exists to promote understanding
and unity within the Christian household, particularly between the Roman
Catholic and Anglican Churches, two of the world's most global and
far-reaching bodies, and to encourage cooperation between all peoples.
The Anglican Church is the only Church to have a permanent 'diplomatic'
presence in Rome.

Director of the Centre is the Very Revd David Richardson who is the
Archbishop of Canterbury's Representative to the Holy See. In welcoming
the Prime Minister, Dean Richardson noted that this was not only the
first visit to the Centre of an Australian Prime Minister but the first
visit of a head of government. He commented on the increasingly
important place of religion in world affairs and the global role in
forming opinion and leading thought of the Pope himself. The Anglican
Centre, he said, served as a living reminder to the Holy See of the
strong and deep commitment of the Anglican Communion to full visible
unity with the Roman Catholic Church.

The four decades since the Centre was established have seen a number of
significant agreements reached on matters ecclesiological and
theological. Nevertheless, said David Richardson, unity needs more than
theological agreements; it needs the will to work and go on working, the
patience to wait in hope and the grace to love and go on loving. These
are what the Anglican Centre in Rome does by the friendships it builds,
through prayer, through study undertaken together in the Centre's
library and through the courses which the Centre runs.

> From: The Anglican Centre in Rome

For further information please visit: www.anglicancentreinrome.org