For ten days in January I was part of a course titled “Christian Unity in Rome: Anglican Ecclesiology and Ecumenism,” co-sponsored by The Living Church magazine (whose contributor list includes many Wycliffe faculty and graduates) and Nashotah House Theological Seminary. The event was timed to coincide with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which falls each year between the feasts of the Conversion of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul (January 18-25). Our group of 25 pilgrims included two Wycliffe graduates: the Rev. Sam Adams, former Senior Student and now a priest in the diocese of Dallas, and the Rev. Paul Wheatley, a Wycliffe ThM grad (PhD, Notre Dame) who teaches New Testament at Nashotah House.
Morning sessions took place at the Anglican Centre in Rome, which serves as a kind of “embassy” of the Anglican Communion to the Roman Catholic Church. I spoke on how to think about the Church in the context of Scripture, with special reference to “the Church as Israel.” Dr. Christopher Wells, Director of Unity, Faith and Order for the Anglican Communion, led us through a series of classic texts in ecclesiology from Augustine to the Reformation, and from Richard Hooker to modern Anglicanism’s emerging consciousness as a worldwide communion of churches. Dr. Matthew Olver, Director of the Living Church Foundation, contributed his expertise in liturgy and ecumenical theology.
The classroom, however, was only part of our Rome experience. We also visited numerous churches, including those memorializing early Roman martyrs such as Peter, Paul, Cecelia, and Agnes. We had the rare privilege of being able to say Anglican Morning Prayer at the Church of St. Agnes on the Piazza Navona; the fact that it was her feast day made our time there all the more moving. We visited St. Bartholomew’s, an ancient church which Pope John Paul II set aside as a memorial for martyrs of the 20th and 21st centuries. Among those honored there are many non-Roman Catholics, including seven members of the Anglican Melanesian Brotherhood, murdered in the Solomon Islands in 2003 as a result of their peacemaking activities.
Ecumenism means personal encounter. Among our Roman Catholic friends in Rome is Dr. Sarah Magister, an Italian art historian, who provided expert guidance on our tours of the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel, and other sites. We also met in the Vatican with members of the Roman Curia, including Martyn Browne, OSB, a winsome Irishman who oversees the “Anglican and Methodist” desk at the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. Cardinal Grech of Malta brought us up to date on the Catholic Church’s Synodality project, which seeks to give local churches and their bishops a greater voice in the Church’s decision-making (although not, the Cardinal emphasized, a final say in determining doctrine). Our meeting with Cardinal Grech began with ecclesiology but ended in fellowship, as we held hands around the table and prayed with him for the healing of Christ’s wounded body.
Fellowship, of course, also entails breaking bread (or pizza) together, and I would be remiss if I did not mention the food. Lots and lots of food. Community formed as we sat around tables groaning with Roman specialties like pinsa, cacio e pepe, and bucatini all’ amatriciana. We shared one memorable lunch at a restaurant in Rome’s historic Jewish quarter, where we discovered the joys of carciofi alla Giudia, deep-fried artichokes “in the Jewish manner.” On my next trip to Rome, I hope to do more by way of exploring the deep roots Jews as well as Christians have made there.
When in Rome, one should try to see the Bishop of Rome—the Pope. We were able to do this on two occasions. The first time was at the weekly General Audience, held in a modern assembly hall next to St. Peter’s Basilica. We were lucky enough to have front-row seats, close to the stage where Pope Francis sat and delivered a homily to an enthusiastic crowd of several thousand people. The second time was at the service of Solemn Vespers that concludes the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, held in the Papal Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls; the church is built on the traditional site of Paul’s own martyrdom around 64/65 C.E. The Pope preached (in Italian, of course) on Jesus’ words to Martha at the tomb of Lazarus: “I am the Resurrection and the Life …. Do you believe this?” Pope Francis returned to these words again and again. “Do you [meaning us, his listeners] believe this?” And if we do, then we will have the courage to persevere in the cause of unity, even when conditions in the Church and the world seem less than promising.
