LogoNNN
The Norfolk and Norwich Christian community website

JulianBishopsNT750
Norwich hosts joint gathering of 42 bishops 

Over 40 Anglican and Catholic bishops are convening in Norwich this week in a joint meeting for services and group discussions about the ways in which the two denominations can work together more closely, as well as understanding each other better. Keith Morris reports.

The 42 bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby and the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, met at the Catholic St John’s Cathedral for Midday Prayers on Tuesday, January 30, followed by lunch in the Cathedral Narthex.
 
From there they visited the St Julian Shrine on Rouen Road where they heard from Fr Richard Stanton, the Shrine’s Priest Director. A fraternal walk through the streets of Norwich followed to the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in The Close.
 
The opening session of the meeting, which is only held once every two years, in the Cathedral’s Weston Room was an opportunity to hear from some of those involved in the coronation of HM King Charles III and discuss wider issues.
 
UsherWelbyNichols NT750Choral Evensong in the Cathedral was followed by a drinks reception and dinner at Bishop’s House, hosted by the Bishop of Norwich the Rt Rev Graham Usher.
 
On the second day, sessions were held to discuss the Synodal journey which the Catholic Church is currently on and St John Henry Newman, an Anglican to Catholic convert, canonized by Pope Francis in 2019.
 
Bishop of East Anglia, the Rt Rev Peter Collins, was co-hosting the meeting with Bishop Graham but was unwell and unable to attend.

Speaking just before the meeting started, Bishop Graham said: “A lot of our visible unity is through social action, through our life of prayer, through our sense of being together.

“Archbishop Justin and Pope Francis have been together in Rome over the last few days, along with East Anglia’s Bishop Peter, commissioning bishops to be evangelists in their communities in pairs – an Anglican bishop with a Catholic one. I have a very strong working relationship with Bishop Peter on many different levels.
 
“There are great bonds of affection and friendship between all the bishops. We do pray for that more striking visible unity when together we can stretch out our hands and receive within them the Body and Blood of Christ. At the moment that is not part of our journey, but I pray that one day it will be.
 
“To mark the 650th anniversary of Julian of Norwich’s Shewings, Pope Francis wrote a reflection which looks at what Mother Julian says to our current age of war, famine, pandemic and ecological disaster. In her own age she knew three waves of the Black Death in this city and she probably saw two thirds of the population die,” said Bishop Graham.
 
“Mother Julian said that God is Lord of the Church so that we don’t have to be and that in God all things will be well, all manner of things shall be well. I hope that as the bishops meet in this fine city that has a long history of hospitality that they will be inspired by our time of prayer, pilgrimage and study together.
 
“God’s Holy Spirit will inspire us and out of that will come incredible new ways of serving God’s church and serving Christ in our midst and you cannot predict what that will be but God has a way of always surprising us."
 
Pictured, from the top, the bishops outside the Julian Shrine, Bishop Graham Usher, Archbishop Justin Welby and Cardinal Vincent Nichols in St John's Cathedral and, below, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, Cardinal Vincent Nichols and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at evensong at Norwich's Anglican Cathedral. Pictures by Neil Turner/Lambeth Palace.
 
You can see more pictures from the meeting in this online gallery.
 
CottrellNicolsWelbyEvensong NT
 


2722 views
To submit a story or to publicise an event please email: web@networknorwich.co.uk