Evening Prayer at Westminster Abbey with Pope Benedict and the Archbishop of Canterbury on September 17th

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Photo Copyright: Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey.

I walked to the Abbey from Victoria Station because of the crowds which gave a good chance to get a feel for the surrounding atmosphere and activity. Cars with blacked out windows and non-standard number plates were everywhere and police motor cyclists with sirens blaring raced in all directions. Nearer the Abbey the crowds grew thicker and banners saying 'Welcome to the Holy Father' jostled with those declaring 'No Popery'.
A friendly woman with a pile of leaflets gave me one which outlined the errors of the Catholic faith. There was nothing new in it. Some of the arguments were ones I have some sympathy with as a protestant; others seemed to show a determined adherence to deliberately distorted interpretations. Put together the arguments simply reinforced prejudice and could not have been in greater contrast with the spirit of the worship which followed.
It was my first experience of Westminster Abbey worship which was, of course, beautiful and ornate and yet attempted and to a great degree, achieved a warm simplicity. The welcome given to the Pope was clearly genuine and also clearly appreciated and reciprocated by him. Catholic and Anglican clergy were mixed up together in seating and procession and other church leaders were given their place too and not sidelined. Val Morrison, our URC moderator of General Assembly was one of the several other Church leaders who greeted the Pope on his entry to the Abbey. The words spoken about shared Christian heritage and the prayers for unity were genuinely felt and meant and the kiss of peace which the two men shared and the shared pronouncing of the blessing at the close were both powerful symbols of ecumenical determination. That much was true and yet I cannot help feeling that it could have been much more. Perhaps it is the non-comformist in me but I wish they could have dressed down and not up, I wish it could have been more spontaneous and less scripted. I say this not because I don't like liturgy; I do, but the genuineness of feeling that I detected and which I know was real, needed to be presented to the watching millions in a far more human than ceremonial way.
So had it missed a trick? I think my almost reluctant answer is yes, because it was all so well meant, but it's perhaps unrealistic to see how it might have been otherwise. Anglican and Catholic bishops may well be able to loosen their collars and sit down round a pub table together, with the odd URC moderator thrown in, but its still hard to imagine the Pope and the Archbishop doing the same, at least in front of the cameras. My prayer is that leaving issues such as the ordination of women aside, that is one issue they might make a priority, for, without simple humanity where are we?
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