RC Bishop of Gozo donates Sunday collections to Anglican Pro-Cathedral in Valletta

Bp Grech and the Anglican Pro-Cathedral
The extraordinary ecumenical warmth which we have witnessed this past week with the visit of Pope Francis to our parish of All Saints Rome, continues to encourage us as we experience genuine fraternal cooperation and support from our Roman Catholic colleagues. For instance, earlier this week the Roman Catholic Bishop of Gozo, HE Mgr Mario Grech, publicly called for more unity between Catholics and Anglicans, and in this spirit announced that the collections during this Sunday’s masses in Gozo will be donated towards repairs to the Anglican Pro-Cathedral of St Paul in Valletta, Malta.

Bishop Grech said in a statement that whereas splits do exist between Christian Churches, “A true Christian must perforce be upset when cracks appear in our unity,” The Gozo Bishop said Anglicans in Malta and Gozo have launched a campaign to raise funds for repairs to their main church, the Pro-Cathedral of St Paul. The repairs are expected to cost some three million euros. Bishop Grech said Lent was a good time for works of charity, and for this reason the Sunday collections would be used to give a helping hand to “our Anglican brethren.”

The Chancellor of the Pro-Cathedral, the Revd Canon Simon Godfrey, who is a tireless worker for ecumenical relations in Malta and Gozo, has described this offer as "simply wonderful!" and a real expression of the "practical ecumenism" which the Pope has encouraged. Fr Simon noted that Bishop Mario refers in his announcement to the "special bond between the Anglican and Gozo Churches".

In my letter of thanks to Bp Grech I underlined how this generous gift is "a sure sign of our commitment to walk forward together in unity and love"

Canon Godfrey
.

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