CEO, The Renewal Programme & Chaplain to HM The Queen, The Revd Canon Ann Easter on the inaugral events of the Archbisop of Canterbury, Justin Welby and Pope Francis
I was very interested to see that, in their recent inaugural events, both Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, and Pope Francis, leader of the world’s Roman Catholics, deliberately simplified and de-mystified the proceedings. The Archbishop did not, as all his predecessors have, invite people to an ‘Enthronement’ – though he was in fact enthroned (by a woman Archdeacon, another first!) into his special seat at Canterbury Cathedral – but to a service to celebrate the beginning of a new ministry and chapter in the life of the Anglican Church. And Pope Francis was almost chatty when he addressed the crowds from his balcony in St Mark’s Square! Then, when it came to the annual commemoration of Jesus’s last Supper, and he was required to wash the feet of twelve people just as Jesus did, Pope Francis went to a local prison and washed the feet of twelve prisoners, two of whom were women and some of whom were Muslim. In past years, Popes have washed the feet of twelve Roman Catholic priests!
