Cardinal Koch and the Archbishop of Canterbury attend Evensong at the Abbey
Wednesday, 13th June 2012
His Grace The Archbishop of Canterbury and His Eminence Kurt Cardinal Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, attended Evensong in Westminster Abbey on Monday 11th June, the Feast of St Barnabas the Apostle, as part of Cardinal Koch's first formal visit to the Church of England.
In his Welcome The Dean of Westminster, the Very Revd Dr John Hall said:
On behalf of the Dean and Chapter I welcome you warmly to Westminster Abbey for this service of Choral Evensong.
It is a particular pleasure to welcome the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, His Eminence Kurt Cardinal Koch, together with His Grace The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Rowan Williams.
We call to mind our Lord Jesus Christ’s earnest prayer for the unity of His Body, the Church, and we join our prayers to His for the reconciliation of His fractured Body. In so doing we are heartened by the gifts of the Holy Spirit and by the fruits of the visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Westminster Abbey in September 2010.
We pray that this first visit of Cardinal Koch to the Church of England, a sign of fraternal love, may hold an earnest of further advances on the long road towards the full visible unity of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
We invoke the prayers of our patron St Peter and of St Edward the Confessor that our visit, the visit of the Collegiate Church of St Peter Westminster, to the Holy See and to St Peter’s Basilica for the Solemnity of Ss Peter and Paul later this month will be richly blessed.
During Evensong, Archbishop Williams and Cardinal Koch each gave a short address. The service was also attended by many members of the Nikaean Club, which offers hospitality on behalf of the Archbishop to representatives of other churches.
See also:The Order of Service (PDF, 118 KB)
