wfn.org | Dedication of new Anglican Centre in Rome

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

99-021
Archbishop Carey meets with Pope, dedicates new Anglican 
Centre in Rome

by James Solheim
(ENS) Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey opened the 
new Anglican Centre in Rome February 12-14 and held private 
discussions on a strategy for unity with Pope John Paul II.

"The centre has been a place for learning and discussion, a 
place where eyes are opened and enthusiasm for Christian unity 
kindled," said Carey in dedicating the new $500,000 headquarters 
in an imposing Renaissance palace, the Doria Pamphili.

Carey reminded the 300 guests from around the Anglican 
Communion who joined in the dedication-including Cardinal Edward 
Cassidy of the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity-
of the history of the centre and its initial dedication by Archbishop 
Michael Ramsey in 1966.

At that time Ramsey pointed out that Anglicans cherish 
Scripture and the Catholic creeds, as well as the lessons of the 
Reformation and "the continuity which it claims with the ancient 
church." In its embrace of "saints and teachers of every period 
in the West and the East," Anglicans also strive "to use whatever 
light is shed by modern knowledge upon the understanding of man 
and the world." Carey said that the original vision of "making 
available the resources of Anglican learning to anyone who will 
come and enjoy them" had not changed.

The Anglican Centre offers continuing education 
opportunities for both clergy and laity and its director serves as 
a personal representative of the archbishop of Canterbury to the 
Vatican.

Shortly after the dedication, Carey announced the appointment of 
Bishop John Baycroft of Ottawa, Canada, as the new director of the 
centre. Baycroft, who will succeed the Rev. Bruce Ruddock and his 
wife Vivien, who has been a member of the Anglican Roman Catholic 
International Commission, responsible for the official theological 
dialogue between the two communions.

Responding to his appointment, Baycroft was quoted in a local 
paper as saying, "Anglican-Roman Catholic relations have grown 
to the point that the Archbishop of Canterbury thought it would be 
a good thing to put a bishop there. My role is to make sure the Anglican

Communion as a whole is represented and interpreted to the Vatican and 
the Vatican is interpreted back to the Anglican Communion."

Millennium meeting scheduled
At his meeting with Pope John Paul II Carey discussed the 
future relations between the two churches, including a meeting 
early in 2000 in Canada to develop plans for future cooperation, 
described by Ruddock as "a global meeting between church leaders 
at the highest level." The agenda for the meeting would not avoid 
"difficult matters such as inter-communion and mixed marriages," 
Carey said, but would concentrate on the broader issues of the 
relationship. They also expressed a common concern for persecution 
of Christians in the Sudan and India and said that they would work 
together on such issues.

Carey and the Pope also agreed that they would cooperate in 
addressing issues of economic justice and international debt-and 
the Millennium. "We look forward to the opportunity offered by 
the celebration of the great Jubilee for churches throughout the 
world, to demonstrate their unity in Christ and their common 
commitment to justice, particularly in encouraging Christians to 
play their part in the campaign against unpayable debt in the 
global south," they said in statement following the meeting.

--James Solheim is director of the Office of News and Information 
for the Episcopal Church. James Rosenthal of the Anglican 
Communion Office in London contributed to this report.