On Unity
It’s been a busy week.. so one or two things I’ve been writing. In this post an article for Unity Post which is a newspaper for West Yorkshire which goes out, as its name suggests, during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Rome, City of Surprises
John Carter, Press and Communications Officer for the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, found his assumptions challenged and ecumenical barriers broken down when he spent six weeks in Rome on study leave.
Let me put my cards on the table immediately. I’ve always been an Anglican, and although the family lapsed a bit and I ran away from Sunday School, never to return, I ended up as a teenager at an evangelical C of E church on the Wirral, where the Pope and Roman Catholicism in general were treated with deep suspicion. Membership of a university Christian Union probably didn’t help and even though I later worked closely with a genial Irish Catholic priest on Radio Merseyside, and was glad to be a reporter when Pope John Paul II came to Liverpool in the early 80’s, I still retained a suspicion for all things Roman well into my time as an Anglican ‘minister’ (definitely not a ‘priest’!).
Thankfully, twenty years on, and with ten years as the Press and Communications Officer at Ripon and Leeds Diocese, I’d mellowed a wee bit. Just as well, since I was planning to spend six weeks of my long-awaited sabbatical break last summer in Rome, meeting with Roman Catholic communications professionals, seeing how the Italian church was using the latest technology, and studying at the renowned and unique Centre for Social Communication at the Pontifical Gregorian University. I’d even prepared by learning ‘un poco italiano’.
Even so, I carried in my suitcase plenty of stereotypes, myths and suspicions - which began to take a knock within a few hours of arriving, on a sweltering Sunday in May, at my destination. First surprise was my hotel, Domus Aurelia, a little Catholic hostel near the Vatican with both a chapel and a bar boasting free Wi-Fi which seemed to welcome a continuous stream of visitors from every destination and every denomination. As I arrived, the hotel was organising and hosting a course for young Roman Catholics on evangelisation, with practical sessions sharing their faith on the city streets. Street evangelism? Whatever next? Next, in fact, was my meeting at the Gregorian University with Jacob Srampickal, the genial, lively Indian priest in charge of the Media and Communications Centre who’s first language was English and who wasn’t afraid to offer both praise and criticism of the way the church in Italy did things. Widely read and widely travelled he reeled off a list of friends and colleagues in Leeds where he’d studied, while typing out a list of classes I could attend and introducing me to passing lecturers. They couldn’t have been more welcoming - despite being an Anglican I was given all the help I wanted and even invited to contribute to one or two seminars. More than that, I was discovering committed communication professionals who were keen to use the latest technology to share their faith in Christ. Another misconception bit the dust.
Then there was the Anglican Centre in Rome – a haven from all this ecumenism, or so I thought. How wrong I was. We stood in a semi-circle to receive the bread and wine in a light, airy and simple chapel - four Anglicans, three Roman Catholics, two Lutherans and a Presbyterian. In fact, the centre wasn’t just a world meeting point for Anglicans from around the globe, but a place of welcome for people of all denominations staying in the city. Based on the third floor of the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, a beautiful palace right in the city centre, the Centre was the gift of a family which has, as its goal, better ecumenical relations. So it seemed appropriate and very natural that over lunch I met Tony, Benjamin, Daniel, Sarah and several others, all hailing from different countries and different denominations.
Back at the University the same afternoon I meet Professor Andreu Scarpetta, leading a two hour class on Media and Ecumenism. It was a fascinating seminar using the latest Power Point technology to trace the development of Protestantism. Despite the lecture being in Italian, I learned more about my own background in those two hours than I’d ever learned back home. Yet Andreu’s treatment was surprisingly sympathetic and later he told me that he worried most when ‘fundamentalists’ from his own church refuse to entertain ecumenism.
The same evening I’m invited by some of those I’d met to a prayer service in the Trastevere region of Rome. The St. Egidio community has a worldwide reputation for peace making and, here was another surprise: the service at their home in the Basilica of Santa Maria is almost entirely led by lay people. It’s very unliturgical, very inclusive and the readings have a simultaneous translation into half a dozen languages using little portable headsets. Afterwards, over a beer and pizza, I meet Leonardo, a member of the community, who chats in a mix of Italian and English about the work of the community before giving me a lift back to my hotel on his Vespa. I hang on for grim death as we wind through the narrow streets at top speed and my life flashes before me.
But perhaps the biggest myth that’s blown away is that somehow the Roman Catholic church is a bit traditional and behind the times. At the Gregorian University students are learning to build websites, make radio and TV programmes, write press releases and apply rigorously apply theology to media and communications. I meet with professionals working on Catholic newspapers, Catholic websites, I visit Catholic press agencies and most interesting of the lot, SAT 2000. This is a satellite television station started ten years ago by the Italian bishops, which now broadcasts everyday from big studios in Milan and Rome, is always in the top ten of Italian TV stations and includes drama, documentaries, news on the hour, chat shows, debates, comedy and satire, and is creating something new and fresh. It was another eye-opener.
Rome is unique – not just a city but the cradle of the church. So you’ll still see nuns and priests everywhere, there’s lots of Catholic tradition, and, of course, the tacky trinkets and religious knick- knacks being sold on every street corner. But dig a bit deeper and you find a church which is pushing back technological boundaries, members who are reaching out in evangelism, and many who want to break down the denominational barriers. If sabbaticals are designed to refresh and challenge, then Rome was an excellent choice. I’ve made friends there ranging from Roman Catholic priests to Lutheran academics, and discovered in Rome a worldwide church of many denominations which is varied, diverse, global, and exciting.
Rome, City of Surprises
John Carter, Press and Communications Officer for the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, found his assumptions challenged and ecumenical barriers broken down when he spent six weeks in Rome on study leave.
Let me put my cards on the table immediately. I’ve always been an Anglican, and although the family lapsed a bit and I ran away from Sunday School, never to return, I ended up as a teenager at an evangelical C of E church on the Wirral, where the Pope and Roman Catholicism in general were treated with deep suspicion. Membership of a university Christian Union probably didn’t help and even though I later worked closely with a genial Irish Catholic priest on Radio Merseyside, and was glad to be a reporter when Pope John Paul II came to Liverpool in the early 80’s, I still retained a suspicion for all things Roman well into my time as an Anglican ‘minister’ (definitely not a ‘priest’!).
Thankfully, twenty years on, and with ten years as the Press and Communications Officer at Ripon and Leeds Diocese, I’d mellowed a wee bit. Just as well, since I was planning to spend six weeks of my long-awaited sabbatical break last summer in Rome, meeting with Roman Catholic communications professionals, seeing how the Italian church was using the latest technology, and studying at the renowned and unique Centre for Social Communication at the Pontifical Gregorian University. I’d even prepared by learning ‘un poco italiano’.
Even so, I carried in my suitcase plenty of stereotypes, myths and suspicions - which began to take a knock within a few hours of arriving, on a sweltering Sunday in May, at my destination. First surprise was my hotel, Domus Aurelia, a little Catholic hostel near the Vatican with both a chapel and a bar boasting free Wi-Fi which seemed to welcome a continuous stream of visitors from every destination and every denomination. As I arrived, the hotel was organising and hosting a course for young Roman Catholics on evangelisation, with practical sessions sharing their faith on the city streets. Street evangelism? Whatever next? Next, in fact, was my meeting at the Gregorian University with Jacob Srampickal, the genial, lively Indian priest in charge of the Media and Communications Centre who’s first language was English and who wasn’t afraid to offer both praise and criticism of the way the church in Italy did things. Widely read and widely travelled he reeled off a list of friends and colleagues in Leeds where he’d studied, while typing out a list of classes I could attend and introducing me to passing lecturers. They couldn’t have been more welcoming - despite being an Anglican I was given all the help I wanted and even invited to contribute to one or two seminars. More than that, I was discovering committed communication professionals who were keen to use the latest technology to share their faith in Christ. Another misconception bit the dust.
Then there was the Anglican Centre in Rome – a haven from all this ecumenism, or so I thought. How wrong I was. We stood in a semi-circle to receive the bread and wine in a light, airy and simple chapel - four Anglicans, three Roman Catholics, two Lutherans and a Presbyterian. In fact, the centre wasn’t just a world meeting point for Anglicans from around the globe, but a place of welcome for people of all denominations staying in the city. Based on the third floor of the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, a beautiful palace right in the city centre, the Centre was the gift of a family which has, as its goal, better ecumenical relations. So it seemed appropriate and very natural that over lunch I met Tony, Benjamin, Daniel, Sarah and several others, all hailing from different countries and different denominations.
Back at the University the same afternoon I meet Professor Andreu Scarpetta, leading a two hour class on Media and Ecumenism. It was a fascinating seminar using the latest Power Point technology to trace the development of Protestantism. Despite the lecture being in Italian, I learned more about my own background in those two hours than I’d ever learned back home. Yet Andreu’s treatment was surprisingly sympathetic and later he told me that he worried most when ‘fundamentalists’ from his own church refuse to entertain ecumenism.
The same evening I’m invited by some of those I’d met to a prayer service in the Trastevere region of Rome. The St. Egidio community has a worldwide reputation for peace making and, here was another surprise: the service at their home in the Basilica of Santa Maria is almost entirely led by lay people. It’s very unliturgical, very inclusive and the readings have a simultaneous translation into half a dozen languages using little portable headsets. Afterwards, over a beer and pizza, I meet Leonardo, a member of the community, who chats in a mix of Italian and English about the work of the community before giving me a lift back to my hotel on his Vespa. I hang on for grim death as we wind through the narrow streets at top speed and my life flashes before me.
But perhaps the biggest myth that’s blown away is that somehow the Roman Catholic church is a bit traditional and behind the times. At the Gregorian University students are learning to build websites, make radio and TV programmes, write press releases and apply rigorously apply theology to media and communications. I meet with professionals working on Catholic newspapers, Catholic websites, I visit Catholic press agencies and most interesting of the lot, SAT 2000. This is a satellite television station started ten years ago by the Italian bishops, which now broadcasts everyday from big studios in Milan and Rome, is always in the top ten of Italian TV stations and includes drama, documentaries, news on the hour, chat shows, debates, comedy and satire, and is creating something new and fresh. It was another eye-opener.
Rome is unique – not just a city but the cradle of the church. So you’ll still see nuns and priests everywhere, there’s lots of Catholic tradition, and, of course, the tacky trinkets and religious knick- knacks being sold on every street corner. But dig a bit deeper and you find a church which is pushing back technological boundaries, members who are reaching out in evangelism, and many who want to break down the denominational barriers. If sabbaticals are designed to refresh and challenge, then Rome was an excellent choice. I’ve made friends there ranging from Roman Catholic priests to Lutheran academics, and discovered in Rome a worldwide church of many denominations which is varied, diverse, global, and exciting.
posted by John Carter @ 2:31 pm
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