Unifying Experience
His Excellency The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior leader of the Anglican Church, visited St Carthage's Catholic Cathedral Lismore for a Midday Service. (14 October 2022)
On Friday, 14 October, His Excellency The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior leader of the Anglican Church, visited St Carthage's Catholic Cathedral Lismore, accompanied by his wife Mrs Caroline Welby and the Anglican Bishop of Grafton Dr Murray Harvey and clergy from the local Diocese and the United Kingdom. His visit to the Anglican Diocese of Grafton will be the first since Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher visited in 1950.
The Archbishop of Canterbury visited Lismore as part of his two-week Australian tour, which focused on a commitment to understanding and healing with First Nations people. Archbishop Welby also met with people across the country affected by climate change, an issue the Archbishop has spoken about extensively.
Archbishop Welby was received by the Most Reverend Gregory Homeming OCD, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Lismore, Bishop Emeritus Geoffrey Jarratt DD and Rev Fr Bing Monteagudo, Cathedral Administrator.
The Archbishop met with principals and student representatives from schools located in the Lismore parishes, St Carthage's Primary School, Lismore, Trinity Catholic College, Lismore, Our Lady Help of Christians Primary School, South Lismore and St John's College, Lismore, all of which sustained damage in the flood.
Bishop Greg warmly welcomed the Archbishop in an ecumenical midday prayer service, led in part by senior students from Catholic schools of the Diocese of Lismore.
‘This is an extraordinary ecumenical gesture for you to come to us as a friend. We stand together as Bishops with a common experience of our Lord Jesus, the one that we love, the one that we follow, but the one that we share our experience of with others,’ said Bishop Homeming.
Archbishop Welby was gracious in his response, acknowledging how Catholic Social Teaching has helped form his spiritual discipline.
‘One of the greatest influences on my ministry has been that of Catholic social teaching from Rerum Novarum onward. And basically, it's a series of encyclicals - pastoral letters by Popes - which talked about some very basic principles of what it is to live in this world. One of them is the principle that we care about the common good,’ he said.
In his homily, the Archbishop spoke of the ecumenism of suffering and was deeply moved by the courage and loyalty shown to one another during the flood.
‘We have much to learn from you,’ said Archbishop Welby. A lovely acknowledgement of the communal spirit.
