Pope's visit to mark 200 years of Anglican worship in
Rome
(Vatican Radio) On Sunday Pope Francis is scheduled to visit
All Saints Anglican Church, where he will answer questions from the
congregation, bless a newly commissioned icon of Christ the Saviour and witness
a twinning with Rome’s Catholic parish dedicated to All
Saints.
The afternoon visit will take the form of a short Evensong
service, presided over by the pope and by the bishop of the Anglican Diocese in
Europe, Robert Innes. It’s the first time a pope has visited an Anglican church
in Rome and it comes as part of All Saints’ 200th anniversary celebrations.
As chaplain of All Saints for the past 18 years, Father
Jonathan Boardman will be welcoming the pope to the central Rome
parish, which began with a group of English worshippers back in October 1816.
He talked to Philippa Hitchen about the origins of the community and about the
importance of this historic papal visit….
Fr Jonathan explains that there was no English community
living in Rome during the period of the Napoleonic wars, but when peace was
declared in 1815 following the Battle of Waterloo, English visitors returned to
Rome in significant numbers. He notes too that the papacy had been supported,
and papal states restored, in part by British intervention, so “there was a
good deal more tolerance…. to permit these foreigners to worship in their own
rite”.
These visitors from the north arrived in their coaches at
Rome’s Porta Flaminia, he says, and stayed close to that area. Before
long, there was an English chemist, two or three English doctors and several
tearooms, “so this area was the obvious place for English worship to be
conducted”.
From granary chapel to neo-Gothic church
The first clergyman to celebrate a Eucharist according to
the Church of England rite was the Dean of Jersey, who was spending six months
in Rome and was asked to lead worship on Sunday 27th October 1816. Fr Jonathan
says there were four worshippers that first Sunday, twenty the following week
and fifty the week after that, so soon they had to move out of the private
apartment where they had gathered and rent somewhere to celebrate the
liturgies.
After the first few years, the community was given the use
of a chapel outside the Flaminian gate in a converted granary, where they
worshipped from 1827 to 1887, when the first Eucharist was celebrated on Easter
Day in the current neo-Gothic church building. When the pontiff of the period,
Pope Pius VII, was asked about permission for Anglican worship in the city, he
reportedly replied, “what the pope doesn’t know, the pope doesn’t have to
approve.”
From English ghetto to international community
Today, Fr Jonathan continues, the profile of the
congregation has changed enormously to include members of over 20
nationalities, largely from Commonwealth countries and mainly English speaking.
He notes there is an increasingly large number of children, thanks to an
excellent education programme led by the assistant chaplain, Rev. Dana English.
Importance of first papal visit
Reflecting on the significance of the papal visit, he says
“Of course it’s special, but in a sense it’s special because it should be
normal” given the increasingly good relations between Anglicans and Catholics
over the past 50 years. He adds that the visit marks the “crowning of our
celebrations of 200 years, we feel immensely honoured, we’re full of joy, we
know it’s going to be a very special moment in our memories and for our future”
Ecumenism at work in the parishes
Finally Father Jonathan recalls the “official strengthening
of the IARCCUM (International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and
Mission) process last October with the archbishop of Canterbury and the pope
commissioning pairs of Roman Catholic and Anglican bishops to go back to their
dioceses and work together”.
Working together in service to the poor
The twinning of All Saints with the Catholic parish of
Ognissanti on the Via Appia Nuova, he says, is an example of that at
“grassroots level” As the only two churches in Rome dedicated to All Saints,
they have worked together for the past decade and Sunday’s event will be further
commitment in terms of “learning about each other’s traditions, sharing worship
in as much as we can, growing in friendship and committing ourselves to working
together for the service of the poor”.
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