The Archbishop of York says the work towards Christian unity must be something the churches “do together” and has praised the ministry of Pope Francis as a “blessing” for all Christians.
Archbishop Stephen Cottrell has spent several days in the Rome, meeting Pope Francis and senior Vatican officials. On Wednesday, 24 May, he discussed ecumenism and evangelisation with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, at the Anglican Centre in the city.
“I believe one of the biggest mistakes that we have made, is that we have allowed the pursuit of unity, the sharing of the Gospel, to become things that we talk about, we write papers about, we have conferences about, we have conversations about rather than seeing something that we must do,” Archbishop Cottrell said during the discussion which can be watched here.
The archbishop has never visited Rome before. Archbishop Ian Earnest, the director of the Anglican Centre and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Holy See, organised his trip.
On Monday he had an audience with the Pope, accompanied by his wife Rebecca and his chaplain, Revd Dr Jenny Wright.
“I was delighted and slightly surprised [by the audience]. I was expecting it to be quite a formal meeting and an exchange of pleasantries, but we had a proper conversation,” Archbishop Cottrell told The Tablet.
“He initiated prayer at the end of the meeting. Praying the Lord’s prayer with him had quite a profound impact, and took me to the consideration of the word ‘our’ of the Our Father and what it means for unity.”
At the end of the meeting, the archbishop presented the Pope with a bowl that his wife Rebecca, a potter, had made for him. The bowl features words from St Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Sun and an image of the Tree of Life.
“Whether you are a Catholic or not, his ministry has been a blessing to the world and to the whole Church,” Archbishop Cottrell said.
“When you meet Pope Francis, you are so evidently meeting a follower of Jesus, someone, who gives his life to Christ. It’s beautifully compelling, and it changes you.”
The Archbishop of York is second in seniority to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England's hierarchy and sits in the House of Lords.
Archbishop Cottrell did not grow up in a church-going household; he found faith as a teenager and has an Anglo-Catholic spirituality. Immediately after his confirmation in York, he prayed at the shrine of the Catholic reformation martyr St Margaret Clitherow with the Bishop of Middlesbrough, Terence Drainey.
He recognised that Francis faced opposition but said that pushback, or people feeling threatened by reforms, was expected in a parish or a denomination.
“What I see in Pope Francis is his joy and hope in the Gospel undiminished. It would be easy to play to the gallery and change course,” the archbishop said.
In response to the divisions over the ordination of women or same-sex blessings, Archbishop Cottrell said it was essential to emphasise the unity between Anglicans and Catholics found through baptism.
“I believe that water is thicker than blood and that our identity in Christ through baptism must trump our differences. It’s not that they don’t exist, or don’t matter – we need to discuss them.
“I fully understand the difficulties of disagreement that can lead to division. But I am simply not going to go to that place where I sit in judgment on fellow Christians, but to that common baptism,” he said.
“I recently walked the Camino [in Spain], and it made me realise: you can’t choose your fellow pilgrims, they are walking with you whether you like it or not.”
The archbishop said he would “most certainly would [like to see recognition]” of Anglican orders by Rome, “but I don’t see that they are in my gift or power. What we need most of all is to come close to Christ.”
The Archbishop of York knows Cardinal Tagle, the pro-prefect for the section of evangelisation at the Dicastery for Evangelisation, from when the cardinal addressed the Lambeth Conference in 2022.
During Wednesday’s discussion at the Anglican Centre, Archbishop Cottrell said the cardinal’s speech at Lambeth had been “the highlight of the show.”
For his part, Cardinal Tagle addressed the lack of joy in the Church, particularly among the clergy, which he says can “contaminate”. He said that if it is constantly repeated that the Church in Europe is “ageing, tired”, it will become a self-fulfilling description.
The cardinal recalled celebrating Mass for the Filipino community in Milan, when 20,000 people attended. “I did not see an ageing, tired Church,” he said, asking: “Are those migrants considered part of the Church?”
Archbishop Cottrell also held a meeting with Cardinal Mario Grech, the leader of the synod office.
The archbishop told The Tablet that he was supportive of “the idea of a church walking together, and drawing in lay voices into the places of discernment”.
However, he said that “from what I understand from how Pope Francis is shaping this and from my conversations with Cardinal Grech, the way that synodality works in the Anglican Communion is different from what is being shaped in the Catholic Church”.
He added: “We have much to learn from each other.”
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