Pope Leo XIV formally greets the Rev. Benjamin King, Ph.D., at the Vatican. (Photo © Vatican Media)

The Rev. Benjamin King, Ph.D., Academic Dean and Duncalf-Villavoso Professor of Church History at Seminary of the Southwest, was among the honored guests in Rome as the Vatican celebrated St. John Henry Newman being named the 38th Doctor of the Universal Church.

A noted Newman scholar, Dr. King was one of only two non-Catholic contributors to the positio—the Vatican document advancing Newman’s cause for this historic declaration. His scholarship on Newman and the Oxford Movement has positioned him among the leading interpreters of Newman’s theology.

The Vatican’s celebration acknowledged Newman’s enduring influence across both Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions. On Friday, October 31, Dr. King presented at a day-long symposium on Newman at the Pontifical Gregorian University, joining international scholars in reflection on Newman’s theological legacy and continuing impact on education and ecclesial life.

On Saturday, November 1, 2025,  Dr. King joined the Anglican delegation attending the Mass in St. Peter’s Square at which Pope Leo XIV formally declared Newman a Doctor of the Church. Prior to the liturgy, the delegation were given a papal audience, during which Dr. King was personally introduced to the pope as “the Anglican contributor to the positio.” This audience underscored Newman’s significance as a figure who lived and developed key theological insights within both Anglican and Catholic traditions.

The Anglican delegation—led by the Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, and including the Rt. Rev. Dr. Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford—was publicly welcomed by the Pope during the Mass in acknowledgment of Newman’s Anglican heritage and ecumenical witness.

Reflecting on the occasion, Dr. King said, “It is deeply meaningful that the Vatican considers Newman an ecumenical saint. As an Episcopalian, I have been welcomed into the process of naming Newman a Doctor of the Church, and in Rome I was moved by the extent to which Anglicans were included in the celebrations. It is remarkable that Newman, who developed many of his most important theological ideas while an Anglican, is now regarded as a co-patron of Catholic education alongside no less a theologian than Thomas Aquinas.”

Dr. King joined the Seminary of the Southwest faculty in 2023. He holds degrees from Cambridge University (BA, MA), Harvard Divinity School (ThM), and Durham University (PhD). His research centers on the Oxford Movement, the theology of John Henry Newman, the development of the Anglican Communion, and the Episcopal Church’s historic entanglement with slavery. He is the author of Newman and the Alexandrian Fathers and The Oxford Movement and the People of God: Enslavement, Education, and Empire and co-editor of Receptions of Newman and The Oxford Handbook of John Henry Newman. He serves on the editorial board of Anglican and Episcopal History.

The Rt. Rev. Kathryn M. Ryan, Suffragan Bishop of Texas, said, “Dr. King’s scholarship and presence in Rome reflect Southwest’s commitment to theological depth, ecumenical relationship, and faithful engagement with the global church.”

Newman’s naming as a Doctor of the Church affirms his enduring role in shaping modern Christian understandings of conscience, formation, and the development of doctrine—principles at the heart of Seminary of the Southwest’s mission to form leaders for the Church and the world.

During a special Sept. 21 worship service, 13 young adults, now part of the 2025-2026 cohort, were vested in robes signifying their membership in the Community at the Crossing and formally received into the larger Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine community in New York. Photo: Hannah Spiers

[Episcopal News Service] The third cohort of Community at the Crossing, a yearlong ecumenical intentional community, has settled in at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York. Now through May 2026, members of different Christian backgrounds will live, work, study, pray, share meals and engage in community service together.

“[Community at the Crossing] gave me an opportunity to take a few steps back, gain a different perspective and be able to embrace my vocation with a real sense of – this is a thing that I feel like God and I are saying yes to together,” Benjamin “Ben” Sides, an alumnus of the first Community at the Crossing cohort from 2023-2024, told Episcopal News Service. Sides is a seminary student at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California.

This year’s cohort includes 13 adults ages 22-33 from the United States, Japan and India. Their Christian backgrounds include Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Catholic and non-denominational. Their academic backgrounds also vary, ranging from religion and anthropology to graphic design, education, finance and more. Most members live at St. John the Divine, though some are commuting every day.

“Every cohort is a little different, but in a good way,” the Rev. Matt Jacobson, who also serves on the Community at the Crossing’s advisory board, told ENS. “I’m looking forward to seeing how they change over the year, how God works on them and through them throughout this program.”

During a special Sept. 21 worship service, the cohort was vested in robes signifying their membership in the Community at the Crossing and formally received into the larger cathedral community.

The Rev. Patrick Malloy, former dean of St. John the Divine and chaplain to the Community at the Crossing, told ENS in 2023 that he founded the program after observing the international Community of St. Anselm at Lambeth Palace in London, England, which was founded in 2015 by then-Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. The Catholic Chemin Neuf Community, an international community with an ecumenical vocation, also was an inspiration.

Members of both the St. Anselm and the Chemin Neuf communities helped design the Community at the Crossing’s curriculum, which includes Bible studies, guest speakers, local community service, regular retreats and more. Sides said he volunteered at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore twice a week while a part of Community at the Crossing.

“This program is both pragmatic as well as deeply spiritual. …I think it will, without a doubt, have a life-changing impact on these young people,” the Rev. Meredith Hawkins, a member of Community at the Crossing’s advisory board, told ENS.

The program’s Dialogues on Divinity speaker series, which is open to the public, will address contemporary issues through a theological lens. The first event, scheduled for Oct. 19, is on “conflict and the healing of hatred” and will feature guest speakers from the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue in Jerusalem.

Sister Hannah Spiers, program coordinator of Community at the Crossing, told ENS that the Community at the Crossing doesn’t aim to make young adults into “super religious people” or future ordinands, but instead focuses on helping them deepen their faith and understanding of other Christian backgrounds.

“It’s really to transform individuals through the grace of community life and a rhythm that centers on Christ so that they transform the world,” she said.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

The Malines Conversations were a series of five informal ecumenical conversations held from 1921 to 1927 that explored possibilities for greater unity between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England, forming one stage of Anglican–Roman Catholic dialogue.

The conference brought together church leaders and scholars and heard contributions from Monseigneur Luc Terlinden, archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels; the Most Rev. Bernard Longley, archbishop of Birmingham; the Rt. Rev. Robert Innes, bishop in Europe;  and the Most Rev. Ian Ernest, retired archbishop and primate of the Province of the Indian Ocean.

Following the conference there was a further academic session including speeches on Anglican-Catholic dialogue that was introduced by Terlinden. His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity; His Excellency Johan Bonny, bishop of Antwerp; and Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell shared their reflections.

Speaking of the importance of dialogue and the Malines Conversations, Cottrell said, “I am often struck by how our disunity weakens our witness to the world. We have grown too used to a broken body of Christ. Yet, I have also seen how, when we walk, work and pray together, people glimpse the heart of the Gospel and turn to Christ. The ecumenical journey that was begun in the Malines Conversations continues today, and it is a privilege to celebrate the progress that has been made. But there’s more to do. God is inviting us to live more deeply into the unity we already share. For the sake of the world.”

Terlinden said, “The Malines Conversations remind us that dialogue and friendship are vital steps on the road to unity.”

A solemn service of Evensong followed the conference sessions and was presided over by Terlinden and Cottrell, with Koch reading one of the lessons.

A plaque also was unveiled commemorating Cardinal Mercier, who was the leading Catholic in the 1921-25 conversations.

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ Catholics gather outside the Church of Gesù after they attended a Mass on Sept. 6 for the Jubilee Year in Rome. Photo: Sipa via Associated Press

[Episcopal News Service – Rome, Italy] Marianne Duddy-Burke rested in the shade outside St. Paul’s Within the Walls on Sept. 6 after a historic day for LGBTQ+ Catholics.

Twenty-five years earlier, Duddy-Burke, the executive director of the Catholic full-inclusion organization DignityUSA, had traveled to Rome for Holy Year, or jubilee, a once-every-25-years time of spiritual renewal, reconciliation and forgiveness for Roman Catholics. Back then, as she and members of her group tried to attend jubilee Mass, security turned some of them away, while others slipped through. This time, however, she and her wife, Becky Duddy-Burke, a former Roman Catholic nun, attended Mass and together walked through the doors of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Duddy-Burke was among some 250 LGBTQ+ Roman Catholic leaders representing about 1,400 LGBTQ+ Catholic pilgrims and their families from over 20 countries who gathered at the Episcopal church on Via Nazionale, following the first-ever recognized LGBTQ+ jubilee pilgrimage.

To get listed on the Vatican calendar in one jubilee cycle “is a real testament to the queer people and families around the world telling their stories of faith and living the Gospel,” she said.

Millions of Roman Catholics make jubilee pilgrimages to Rome, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. On Sept. 5, LGBTQ+ pilgrims attended a prayer vigil inside Church of Gesù, the Jesuits’ mother church, and on Sept. 6, following a Mass, the LGBTQ+ pilgrims walked through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The global LGBTQ+ Catholic leaders had struggled to find a church in the center of Rome where they could gather for discussion and prayer following the day’s events, and so they turned to St. Paul’s, Larry Littman, the church’s senior warden, told ENS.

St. Paul’s, as an Episcopal church, is the only “officially” fully inclusive church in the central city, and it is becoming the ecumenical gathering place for LGBTQ+ Christians in Rome, Littman said. For example, in June 2024, the church made history when it was the first to march in the city’s Pride parade. This year, Episcopalians marched alongside LGBTQ+ Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, evangelicals and Christians from other denominations, with St. Paul’s serving as a hub before the parade.

The idea that St. Paul’s might open its doors to the pilgrims followed a conversation after the Pride parade, Alessandro Ferraccioli, a former Catholic who is now a St. Paul’s member serving on the vestry, told ENS.

The Roman Catholic Church does not condone homosexuality or same-sex marriage, though it doesn’t consider homosexual orientation a sin or a crime. And the church’s last leader, Pope Francis, worked to normalize acceptance of LGBTQ+ Catholics.

The Global Network of Rainbow Catholics, which provides pastoral care and works for justice, inclusion, dignity and equality for LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families, both within the church and society, organized the jubilee pilgrimage in association with the association Jonathan’s Tent, an Italian LGBTQ+ Catholic organization; DignityUSA; and Outreach, an LGBTQ Catholic ministry; and others.

For the Roman Catholic Church to recognize the LGBTQ+ jubilee pilgrims, Ferraccioli said, “was a big deal,” and for St. Paul’s to open its doors as a meeting place “met the needs of a lot of Christian people.”

As they sat side by side outside St. Paul’s, Marianne and Becky Duddy-Burke, who’ve been together for 27 years, talked of how they’d first met: at an Episcopal church in Boston, Massachusetts, that agreed to host DignityUSA when no one else would. It would later be the Episcopal church where they celebrated their sacramental marriage.

“I carry with me all the people who didn’t live to see this day,” Marianne Duddy-Burke said.

-Lynette Wilson is a reporter and managing editor of Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at lwilson@episcopalchurch.org. 

Episcopalians gather at the Aug. 28-31, 2025, Wild Goose Festival, an annual outdoor event rooted in progressive Christianity. The festival in Harmony, North Carolina, encompasses art, music, storytelling, theater, meditation, theological education and more. Photo: Courtesy of Tommy Dillon

[Episcopal News Service] A group of Episcopalians from several dioceses spent their Labor Day weekend in fellowship with hundreds of spiritually minded people at the Wild Goose Festival in Harmony, North Carolina.

The outdoor event, held annually since 2011 except 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, is rooted in progressive Christianity and social justice. Like the Greenbelt Festival in England that inspired it, the Wild Goose Festival encompasses art, live music, storytelling, theater, meditation, theological education and more. Musicians who have previously performed at The Wild Goose Festival include Christian rock band Jars of Clay, Amy Grant, the folk-rock duo Indigo Girls and more.

“Throughout the years, the festival has changed in different ways, but it just keeps unfolding,” the Rev. Tommy Dillon, rector of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told Episcopal News Service. “Some say it was inspired by the Celtic image of the Holy Spirit, which is a wild, untamed goose, reminding us that God calls us to movement, freedom and having surprise encounters. That’s what the Wild Goose Festival is – people come here to have transformational movements.”

The Episcopal tent, informally called “Camp Thurible,” at the 2025 Wild Goose Festival in Harmony, North Carolina. The tent, which featured the Episcopal and Progress Pride flags, included information about The Episcopal Church and its stances on social justice, LGBTQ+ inclusion, creation care and peacemaking. Photo: Tommy Dillon

Dillon has served as a board member of the Wild Goose Festival since 2016. The Rev. Joy Carrol Wallis – one of the first women ordained as a priest in the Church of England who was the inspiration for Geraldine Granger, the main character of the BBC sitcom “The Vicar of Dibley” – is chair of the board of directors. 

From Aug. 28-31, festivalgoers participated in information sessions and activities addressing theological perspectives on various topics ranging from uplifting Indigenous voices in church, neurodivergence and LGBTQ+ ministries to addressing Christian nationalism and the death penalty in the United States.

Worship services took place every day, including a Eucharist led by Dillon. Other Episcopalians volunteered to lead daily morning prayer and compline worship.

Even though the festival is Christian-focused, all faith backgrounds are welcome to attend. Melissa Rau, a lay leader in the Parrish-based Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida, told ENS, for example, that her camping neighbor is atheist, “and he looks forward to going to the Goose every year.”

“He might be one of the most incredibly Christian people I’ve ever met in that he shows up, like Jesus, to everyone and will intentionally build connections with people who are different,” Rau said. “I feel like the Goose is a safe place for all people to show up to one another as their full, generous, engaging selves.”

Rau, Dillon and several other Episcopalians set up an Episcopal tent informally called “Camp Thurible,” featuring the Episcopal and Progress Pride flags, to provide festivalgoers information about The Episcopal Church and its stances on social justice, LGBTQ+ inclusion, creation care and peacemaking. The Rev. Leeann Culbreath, a priest in the Savannah-based Diocese of Georgia, is in charge of organizing the tent and volunteers every year.

“Honestly, the Episcopal tent would not function nearly as smoothly – or with as much joy – without [Culbreath’s] leadership and dedication,” Dillon said.

Several Episcopal seminaries and dioceses sponsor the tent every year.

Every night, the Episcopalians running the tent gave away cupcakes to welcome everyone. One Episcopal newcomer gave away 200 handmade cards with hand-drawn angels.

“We had something for everybody. … It was a great way to spark conversations with like-minded people,” Cheryl Duplechain, a vestry member at St. Margaret’s in Baton Rouge, told ENS. “Witnessing people share their faith through their music, their art expressions – this festival is an escape from the real world that we live in, where people are judged and looked down upon and our politics are horrific. But everyone truly is welcome here.”

The festival also included opportunities for meditation and exercise, such as reiki and yoga sessions. Many festivalgoers participated in dance parties, including a silent disco party, where they listened and danced to music through wireless headphones.

Dillon said the board intentionally designs the festival’s programming to ensure that at least half of the musicians, art performers and speakers are women and people of color.

“We’re really trying to make sure everyone feels represented,” Dillon said. “We want people to come and to be reenergized for ministries and have fresh ideas to take back to their home parishes.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

Bishop Yehiel Curry. Photo: Courtesy of Metropolitan Chicago Synod

[Religion News Service] The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elected its first Black leader on July 30 at its churchwide assembly meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Rev. Yehiel Curry, bishop of the ELCA’s Metropolitan Chicago Synod since 2019, will serve a six-year term as the denomination’s presiding bishop, the top leadership role. He succeeds Elizabeth Eaton, who has served two terms as presiding bishop.

The 2.7 million-member Protestant group also passed a strongly worded resolution calling on members “to petition U.S. leaders to recognize and act to end the genocide against Palestinians, halt military aid to Israel used in Gaza, and support Palestinian statehood and U.N. membership.”

Other Protestant groups have weighed in with statements calling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide. The United Church of Christ, which met earlier this summer, passed a resolution for an end to genocide. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) last year wrote a pastoral letter that said, “What Palestinians are experiencing is nothing less than genocide.”

The ELCA has sister groups in the embattled region: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, and the World Council of Churches/Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. The Lutheran World Federation operates Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem, which provides care for Palestinians in the West Bank. One of the strongest critics of Israel’s assault on Gaza is Palestinian pastor Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem.

Curry, who is 52, was elected on the fifth ballot during voting on the floor of the Phoenix Convention Center. He received 562 votes out of 799 votes cast.

He has been serving a synod or regional church group of 165 congregations.

He spoke to the assembly about his initial hesitation in accepting the role.

“I never saw myself as good enough, so for two years, I said no,” Curry said. “I finally said yes. When I said yes, your support, this church’s support, of that ministry meant everything. So if you want to know what your benevolence dollars look like, it looks like me. And I want to say thank you. Thank you for your investment.”

He previously served as pastor of Shekinah Chapel Lutheran Church in Riverdale, Illinois, and as mission developer at the church, which is predominantly Black.

Curry grew up Catholic on the South Side of Chicago and became a seventh-grade public school teacher. An unexpected invitation to a worship service in St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, back in the 1990s, led him to discover a calling to ordination.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois, in 1995 and a Master of Divinity in 2013 from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, one of seven ELCA seminaries.

He and his wife, LaShonda, are the parents of three daughters.

The outcome at the court was supported by Episcopal leaders, including the church’s two presiding officers.

“While today’s ruling is certainly a line in the sand and a win for public education and true religious freedom, we must remain vigilant. This case was not about school choice; it was about power, theocratic capture, and the mainstreaming of Christian nationalism,” House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris, a deputy from the Diocese of Oklahoma, said in a written statement. “We must attend to the larger threat, which will require us to be leaders of courageous, faithful witness.”

The case centered on a Roman Catholic school in Oklahoma that was approved as a charter school by a state board in 2023. Opponents argued that the Constitution prohibits such schools from receiving public funds because it would effectively endorse a specific religion.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, sued to block the funding, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against the school. That state ruling stands, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to overrule it.

Before the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe had joined a coalition of Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups in a legal brief opposing public funding for the school.

“The Episcopal Church has consistently supported religious freedom for all in a variety of contexts,” the brief says in summarizing Rowe’s reason for signing. “In 1994, the church urged state legislatures considering ‘moment of silence’ statues for public schools to ‘assure constitutional balance’ in their treatment of the issue by ‘carefully considering the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause as well as its Establishment Clause.’”

The Rev. Christopher Easthill, rector of St. Augustine of Canterbury Anglican-Episcopal Church in Wiesbaden, Germany, serves as chair of the Council of Churches in Germany. He is the first Episcopal priest to hold that position. Photo: Courtesy of Christopher Easthill

[Episcopal News Service] Earlier this year, the Rev. Christopher Easthill, rector of St. Augustine of Canterbury Anglican-Episcopal Church in Wiesbaden, Germany, was elected chair of the Council of Churches in Germany, becoming the first Episcopal priest to hold that position.

Founded in 1948 and reconstituted in 1992 following Germany’s reunification, the council represents 25 churches and denominations countrywide. Its members include the Roman Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church in Germany (the main Protestant denomination), the Moravian Church, the Syrian and Coptic Orthodox churches, Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals, the Council of Anglican Episcopal Churches and many others. It focuses on shared witness, is committed to justice, peace and upholding the integrity of creation, and advocates for the rights of persecuted Christians worldwide.

Easthill, who’d served nine years on the council’s five-member board, was elected chair by the council’s membership during its General Assembly in Augsburg on March 19. He succeeds Greek Orthodox Archpriest Radu Constantin Miron, who served for six years.

Born in Singapore to British nationals, Easthill, a lifelong Anglican, worked for a German insurance company for 30 years and was an active member of the Church of the Ascension in Munich before pursuing ordained ministry. He attended the now-closed St. John’s Theological College in Nottingham, England, and is a 2013 graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. He speaks fluent German and has both U.K. and German citizenship. He was ordained a priest in 2013 and first served as a curate at Ascension in Munich before relocating to St. Augustine of Canterbury in Wiesbaden.

Easthill also chairs the Council of Anglican and Episcopal Churches in Germany, a 15-member organization enabling mission and ministry cooperation among the parishes in the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe and the Church of England’s Diocese in Europe.

The interview has been edited for clarity.

ENS: What is the Council of Churches in Germany and why is it important?

EASTHILL: It’s a very broad body (like the National Council of Churches in the U.S.) that includes almost all churches present at a national level. The Roman Catholic Church is a full member, which is not the case in every country; just as, for example, the Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the World Council of Churches. It includes evangelical free churches, although “evangelical” doesn’t mean the same thing as it does in the U.S. context. They are evangelical in the sense that they are Bible-oriented, and they can sometimes be more theologically and socially conservative on issues like abortion, for example. But they are more politically liberal than American evangelicals, and we have a lot in common on things like creation care and peace and justice, and they’re willing and want to work with other churches. Today, just under 50% of Germans – 20% in what was the formerly communist East Germany – identify as Christian, and it’s important that we speak in a common language.

ENS: In the U.S., mainline Protestant churches come together as the National Council of Churches and often speak in one voice on immigration reform, gun safety, climate change and other advocacy priorities, like those of the Council of Churches in Germany. In the U.S., though, the Christian right speaks louder and has its own unique voice.

What does Christian public witness and advocacy look like in Germany?

EASTHILL: In Germany, most people have the [shared] language to understand what we’re talking about. The most recent criticism we received was from a conservative politician telling us that churches should stick to theological themes rather than acting like an NGO and that we should stop making recommendations on political topics. So, if anything, the overall perception is that the churches in Germany are center-left, which is really not correct. We don’t back political parties. The issues we speak up on, like looking after refugees, poverty, social justice, racism, creation care – these are all Christian issues. And yet some people think our responses are particularly left-wing. Personally, I think that says more about the people criticizing us than about us. But if anything, I would say that’s a different perception. If you say Christian here, the reaction is not going to be, oh, that’s somebody who’s very conservative and doesn’t accept my lifestyle, say if I was LGBTQ. Instead, if you’re coming from the left, you are more likely to say, “Oh, they’re good, they’re on the same page.”

ENS: One thing I didn’t realize is that three different Protestant denominations make up the broader Protestant Church in Germany. And of the 48% of the population who identify as Christians, just under half, about 24%, are Catholic. Can you briefly shed some light on this part of history?  

EASTHILL: It’s complicated! Germany only became a unified state in the 19th century. After the [Protestant] Reformation, some parts of the country remained Catholic, and where the Reformation took effect, it was also the local ruler’s decision which Protestant denomination – Lutheran, Reformed or later United – was recognized. The main Protestant church now unites all three different “flavors” at a national level. Regionally, like our partners in Bavaria, the church will usually just identify with one denomination. On top of that, 40 years of communism in the East [East Germany] had a significant negative impact on church membership.

ENS: In early June, The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria are poised to sign a full-communion agreement. What is its significance?

EASTHILL: On a practical level, it allows for exchange of clergy. We have a big church in Munich and two smaller mission churches in Augsburg and Nuremberg; if there’s an English-speaking pastor, we now have interchangeability we didn’t have before. The wider impact is, it’s the first full-communion agreement that an Anglican church has reached with a German Lutheran church, with their very different history and understanding of the office of bishop. We have full communion agreements, of course, in the United States with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We have a full communion agreement with the Church of Sweden. It could be a pathway into agreements with some of the other Lutheran churches in Germany, and potentially also a pathway for the Church of England.

-Lynette Wilson is a reporter and managing editor of Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at lwilson@episcopalchurch.org.

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe will join other leaders from across the Anglican Communion as part of an Anglican delegation attending a May 18 worship service in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square inaugurating Pope Leo XIV as leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

The inauguration service will be held at 10 a.m. Sunday. Other members of the Anglican delegation include Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop Thabo Makoba of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Archbishop John McDowell of the Church of Ireland and Archbishop Leonard Dawea of the Anglican Church of Melanesia. Dawea, a member of the standing committee of the Anglican Primates’ Meeting, also serves on the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission and will lead the delegation. Bishop Anthony Ball, director of the Anglican Centre in Rome and the archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Holy See, also will attend.

“The delegation will represent the prayers and support of Anglicans around the world as Pope Leo is inaugurated,” the Anglican Communion Office said in a news release. “The delegation will also embody the commitment of the Anglican Communion to walk in friendship and partnership with the Catholic Church.”

The Anglican Communion is a network of 42 autonomous, interdependent provinces worldwide, including The Episcopal Church, each with historical ties to the Church of England. An Anglican delegation also attended the April 26 funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square.

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, was elected May 8 by the conclave of Roman Catholic cardinals. A native of Chicago, Illinois, the 69-year-old Leo is the first U.S.-born elected pope, though he has spent much of his career in ordained ministry outside the United States, including Peru. In 2023, Francis brought him to the Vatican, where he served as prefect of the church’s Dicastery for Bishops.

The Anglican delegation will be hosted in Rome by the Anglican Centre, which has worked since 1966 to strengthen ties between the Anglican Communion’s provinces and the Roman Catholic Church.

“On the day of his election, Pope Leo reminded us that Christ helps to build bridges with dialogue and encounter as we strive to be one people living in peace,” Ball, who also attended Francis’ funeral, said in the Anglican Communion Office’s news release. “At the Anglican Centre in Rome we renew our commitment to the ongoing dialogue between our traditions and our shared work, so that Christ may be known and glorified.”

Bishop Anthony Poggo, secretary-general of the Anglican Communion, also issued a statement about the inauguration.

“We pray for Pope Leo as he prepares for his inauguration,” Poggo said. “Along with representatives of other Christian world communions, we express our support and encouragement.”

The statement reads:

With great joy, we welcome the election and appointment of Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Pope and Bishop of Rome.

On behalf of the worldwide Anglican Communion, we share our prayers, celebration and encouragement as His Holiness takes up his global ministry in service of the Church.

May he lead with faithfulness, vision and courage, embodying the Christian values of peace and justice in service of mission and evangelisation.

At this point in history, the world and the Church face significant challenges. Crises of mass migration, war, poverty and division press upon us all. As ever, the most innocent and vulnerable in our societies suffer most severely.

We welcome Pope Leo’s commitment to building bridges through dialogue, and his summons to all the faithful to visible unity without fear.

The Anglican Communion remains committed to our collaboration with the Catholic Church in the friendship of Jesus, sustained by our formal ecumenical institutions and the pioneering ministry of the Anglican Centre in Rome.

The Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and the International Anglican–Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) help us to think and grow together. Anglicans and Roman Catholics look to these commissions – and the friendships that they enable –  in the spirit of Saint Augustine’s summons to the Communion of Love, founded in the whole Christ.

We pray that God will grant Pope Leo the strength to lead wisely and we assure him of our open arms in return. May we meet the Lord together again, as he comes to us and bids us not to be afraid (John 6:20).

Amen.