2024 Summit Summary

The second summit meeting of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) took place in Rome and Canterbury from 22 to 29 January 2024. IARCCUM is an official bilateral commission of the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church, established to deepen the relationship between Anglicans and Catholics and promote shared mission, based on the significant degree of theological agreement that has been reached over the past sixty years of dialogue. The first IARCCUM summit took place in 2016. The 2024 summit, with the theme Growing Together, gathered pairs of bishops, Catholic and Anglican, from 27 different countries around the world.

The summit began in Rome on 22 January.

The first full day, Tuesday 23 January, included introductions to the background and history of the commission by the Co-Chairmen, Archbishop Donald Bolen (Catholic) and Bishop David Hamid (Anglican), followed by presentations by each bishop-pair on the ecclesial and ecumenical situations in their countries. That evening, the Anglican office of Choral Evensong was sung in the Chapel of the Choir in St Peter’s Basilica, led by musicians and singers from the two Anglican churches in Rome.

On Wednesday 24 January, following Mass in the church of Sant’ Agnese in Piazza Navona, presided by Bishop Rafic Nahra, Patriarchal Vicar for Israel, the bishops gathered in the nearby Centro pro Unione, for a discussion on synodality in the two traditions, with presentations from Sr Nathalie Becquart XMCJ, Under-Secretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops (Catholic), and the Revd Prof Paul Avis, Professor ad honorem in the School of Divinity of the University of Edinburgh (Anglican). The second half of the day was devoted to questions of justice, peace and reconciliation. Following a presentation by Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, bishops heard testimonies about the challenging situations in their territories by the bishop pairs from Sudan, South Sudan and the Holy Land.

On Thursday 25 January, feast of the Conversion of St Paul and final day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the bishops gathered first at Rome’s Anglican Centre, where a discussion of the climate crisis was enriched by testimony from the bishop-pair from Brazil, both of whom serve in the Amazonia region. The bishops then made the short journey to the Basilica of San Bartolomeo all’ Isola, the ‘Sanctuary of the New Martyrs’, which commemorates Christians of various traditions who died for their faith during the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Among the martyrs commemorated there are seven martyrs of the Melanesian Brotherhood, an Anglican religious order, who were murdered by rebels in the Solomon Islands in 2003. The current Anglican Archbishop of Melanesia and Father of the Melanesian Brotherhood, Archbishop Leonard Dawea, was among the bishops present. The archbishop was formerly a member of the brotherhood and knew the martyrs personally. Following their visit to the various exhibits and shrines in the basilica, the bishops participated in a celebration of the Eucharist in the Church of England rite, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, His Grace Justin Welby, presiding and preaching.

Later that afternoon, the IARCCUM bishops gathered in the Basilica of St Paul outside the Walls, along with Christians from many other Christian traditions, for the celebration of Vespers, presided by Pope Francis. In his homily, reflecting on the Gospel story of the Good Samaritan, Pope Francis said: “Only a love that becomes freely-given service, only the love that Jesus taught and embodied, will bring separated Christians closer to one another. Only that love, which does not appeal to the past in order to remain aloof or to point a finger, only that love which in God’s name puts our brothers and sisters before the ironclad defence of our own religious structures, only that love will unite us. First our brothers and sisters, then the structures.” In a spontaneous gesture, following the homily, the Holy Father invited the Archbishop of Canterbury to add his own reflections on the Gospel text. Echoing the words of the Pope about the pre-eminence of love, Archbishop Welby asked: “Why was the Samaritan able to help the injured man?, answering, “because he was free and what made him free was love.” At the end of the liturgy, the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury jointly commissioned the pairs of bishops, so that “wherever you carry out your ministry, you may together bear witness to the hope that does not deceive and the unity for which our Saviour prayed” (Pope Francis); and that their ministry alongside one another might “be for the world a foretaste of the reconciling of all Christians in the unity of the one and only Church of Christ” (Archbishop Welby).

On Friday 26 January, the bishops gathered for Morning Prayer in the church of San Gregorio al Celio, the church from where St Augustine – who later became the first Archbishop of Canterbury - was sent as a missionary to the people of England by Pope St Gregory the Great in 597. The prayer included the reading, by the English bishop-pair, of a letter from Pope St Gregory to St Augustine of Canterbury about his missionary task. The bishops, accompanied by the Archbishop of Canterbury, departed for England immediately afterwards. That evening, they participated in a candle-lit pilgrimage around Canterbury Cathedral.

On the morning of Saturday 27 January, the bishops began reviewing the experiences of the week and reflecting on the statement they would issue together at the end of the meeting. The afternoon was devoted to the topic of safeguarding. Bishops heard in a series of presentations about the need for transparency and accountability and for compassionate listening to the experiences of victims/survivors of abuse by church personnel. The panel members were Ms Pamela Walsh, a victim of childhood sexual abuse by a priest, Ms Mandy Marshall, Project Director for Gender Justice at the Anglican Communion Office, London, and Revd Prof. Hans Zollner SJ, Director of the Institute of Anthropology (IADC) at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. The day ended with a celebration of the Eucharist in Canterbury’s Catholic parish church of St Thomas, presided by Archbishop Christopher Cardone OP of Honiara (Solomon Islands), with Bishop Bruce Myers OGS, Anglican Bishop of Quebec (Canada) preaching the homily.

On Sunday 28 January, the bishop-pairs joined the congregation of Canterbury Cathedral for the Choral Eucharist. The Archbishop of Canterbury presided from the Chair of St Augustine, and the preacher was the Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong, His Eminence Cardinal Stephen Chow SJ. In his homily, Cardinal Chow urged those present to embrace the mission of IARCCUM: “We, Anglicans and Roman Catholics, are called to be Jesus’ partners, individually and collectively. The twelve apostles and disciples were not called to form camps working for their own missions or competing against each other. They were called to become an assembly, a community, a communion, a synodal koinonia, praying and discerning, teaching and serving for the mission of our Triune God.”

At the end of the summit, the bishops of IARCCUM issued a final statement, entitled Our Common Witness, Calling and Commitment. In it, they affirmed: “We are sent to proclaim the joyful message of God’s everlasting kingdom as pilgrim companions to one another on the missionary journey. We promise to proclaim the Good News of peace to those in places scourged by ongoing wars, and to those who live under the threat of violence; the Good News of mercy to those who live with want and with guilt; and the Good News of justice and restoration to those who are oppressed or carrying shame inflicted on them by others.”

Participating Bishops