Today at St John’s we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of Greatness. This is what is left from a shrine that up to the Reformation stood not far from the Parish Church. The shrine has a holy well which was recently located.
I hope that later today we shall have some images of the day.
In Fr Steel’s and Ruth Gledhill’s blogs there is a very interesting piece about Bishop Michael of Rochester.
In an interview he spoke about the opposite pulls in Anglicanism, towards the 'logic of Catholicism' or the 'logic of fragmentation'.
He says that it may be that the Anglicans will see their way to the Catholic Church. 'Anglicans to their credit have never claimed to be the one, true Church.'
Bishop Nazir-Ali believes that Anglicans still had gifts to bring to the ecumenical table, 'aspects which would be an enrichment to the worldwide Church.'
'What we need is first of all to recognise that there is a proper universal ministry for unity, that it is the Bishop of Rome that exercises that historic ministry for today, and to find a way for all Christians to accept that ministry.'
For years now we have been praying for Christian Unity. Forward in Faith, SSC and Orthodox Anglo-Catholics have always seen this unity as their goal, to become one as Jesus wants us to be.
Is it not sad that at a time when these things need to be said clearly as never before, one of the best imaginable men to do it is resigning from the leadership of his See?