Anglican leader hints at joint 'surprises' with Pope Francis
CWN - November 04, 2013
The head of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, said in an interview with Vatican Radio that "a few" Catholic-Anglican "surprises" may be forthcoming.
"There are very fundamental and extremely important doctrinal and dogmatic differences that we have between us and they have to be worked on, as they are with Rome and the Anglicans with ARCIC [the Anglican - Roman Catholic International Commission], and we take those extremely seriously," he said. "It's absolutely essential that those are worked on. But we need to make sure we're working on them in the context of churches and ecclesial communities that say no sacrifice is too great to be obedient to the call of Christ that we may be one."
"God has given you, and given us all, a great Pope," he continued. "And he's a great Pope of surprises… Surprises? Yes, I think there'll be one or two surprises. We're hoping to produce a few surprises."
Asked to divulge "any hint, any teaser" about his visit to the Vatican next spring, Archbishop Welby replied, "No, absolutely not!"
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