Accompanying relics from Rome to Canterbury
On the January 7, 2016 Vatican Radio interviewed Columban Fr Robert McCulloch on the occasion of the accompaniment of important relics from Rome to Canterbury.
(Vatican Radio) Relics associated with St Gregory the Great and St Augustine of Canterbury will be brought together in Canterbury Cathedral next week as Anglican leaders meet for an encounter concerning the future of the worldwide Communion.
Part of a precious pastoral staff from the Roman Church of San Gregorio al Celio is being shipped across to the UK on Friday, where it will be on display, alongside a rare 6th century book of the Gospels given by Pope Gregory to St Augustine as he set off on his mission to take the Christian faith to England. The manuscript is the oldest surviving Latin illustrated Gospel book and one of the most ancient European books in existence.
The idea of loaning the relic, just ahead of the annual “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity”, was the brainchild of Australian Fr Robert McCulloch, a long time missionary in Pakistan who currently serves as Procurator General of the Society of St Columban here in Rome. Fr Robert, together with Rev Marcus Walker, associate director of Rome’s Anglican Centre, will accompany the relic on its historic pilgrimage to and from Canterbury Cathedral.
Just before leaving Rome, Fr Robert came to Vatican Radio to talk to Philippa Hitchen, Vatican Radio about the significance of this important ecumenical event.
Fr Robert says the relic is an ivory carved head of the pastoral staff traditionally associated with Pope St Gregory the Great. It was he who, in 597, sent St Augustine to convert the English after the famous incident at the Roman forum where he saw some English slave boys and called them ‘not Angles, but angels’ (non Angli, sed angeli). The story, Fr Robert remarks, underlines Pope Gregory’s concern for evangelization throughout Europe.
Fr Robert says the idea of this ecumenical venture came to him after the Archbishop of Canterbury, last July, invited Australian Cardinal George Pell to celebrate Mass at the High Altar of Canterbury Cathedral – the first cardinal to do so since the Reformation.
Fr Robert notes with a chuckle that all the necessary permits and insurance documents were gathered from the Vatican, the Italian government ministries and the British government in just two weeks – described by some as an ongoing miracle of Pope Saint Gregory the Great!
The relic, valued at £250.000, will be escorted by security guards to the airport in Rome, and again from Heathrow airport to Canterbury Cathedral, where it will be officially received by the Dean at the conclusion of Evensong on Friday.
It will go on public viewing for the weekends of January 9/10 and 16/17 and during the week it will be available as an object of meditation for the Anglican Primates meeting at their closed door encounter.
On January 15, 2016 the St Augustine book of the Gospels will also be on display there, in what Fr Robert describes as “an extraordinary coming together” of the head of the staff, symbol of ecclesial authority and the book of the Gospels, symbol of the authority of the Word of God.
St Gregory relic back home at start of Christian Unity week
Fr Robert says it's important to note the relic associated with St Gregory is returning from Canterbury to Rome on the day that we mark the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Through this object, he says, we can "recapture the missionary link" in common faith, history and heritage between Catholics and Anglicans.
Fr Robert notes that this year also marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Anglican Centre in Rome, following the first official meeting of an Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, to Pope Paul VI. He talks about the important ministry over the past 50 years of linking the Roman Catholic Church with the Anglican Church, of "maintaining a fraternal, ecumenical and deeply spiritual presence" of the Anglican Church in Rome.
Archbishop Sir David Moxon KNZM, Archbishop of Canterbury's Representative to the Holy See and Director of Anglican Centre in Rome, in an email January 20, 2016 thanked Fr Robert McCulloch (Procurator General of the Society of St Columban) for his great and loving initiative and efforts regarding the sharing of the crozier head of Pope St Gregory the Great with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates meeting at Canterbury this January.
Dear Robert,
Grace and peace to you,
I write to place on record for your own files and also the files of your confreres and superiors, the profound gratitude of the Anglican Centre in Rome for your great and loving initiative and efforts regarding the sharing of the crozier head of Pope St Gregory the great with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates meeting at Canterbury this January.
This idea of using an ancient relic from Rome which is deeply connected to the evangelisation of the south of England at the end of the 6th century was ingenious and challenging , but your care and your diplomatic efforts bore so much fruit, in such a short time, seemingly against the odds. You gave so much time, effort and care to this possibility and literally and personally saw it through in every detail. Only you could have facilitated this, assisted by Father Marcus Walker from the Centre here and Steve Townsend from the British Embassy to the Holy See. As you know the Archbishop and his family were moved to their core when the relic was handed over at Canterbury and this memory will remain indelibly printed on their hearts and minds for as long as they live.
The presence of such a potent sign of the Catholic origins of the Archbishopric of Canterbury at a critical meeting such as the recent primate’s one, undoubtedly had an effect on those present. Surely it was a symbol of what catholic unity means from one of the oldest of our stories as Catholics and Anglicans. Indeed this phrase “catholic unity” ended up in the primate’s communique as a sign of what they achieved and what they intend to seek to maintain into the future. And so you have greatly helped the Anglican Communion at a crucial moment of its history, by an act of sheer grace and goodwill.
I thank God for you and for your far seeing discernment of what grace is capable of, reaching across the denominations, across time and between hearts.
Deo Gratias!
David
The Anglican Centre in Rome promoting Christian unity in a divided world
Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Piazza del Collegio Romano 2
00186 Rome Italy
www.anglicancentreinrome.org
Read more from The Far East, April 2016