Today history will be made in the Vatican City as King Charles and Queen Camilla meet Pope Leo and senior Vatican officials, and King and Pope pray together at a special ecumenical service incorporating Catholic and Anglican traditions.
The service, which will take place in the Sistine Chapel, will be focused on protecting nature, in recognition of the King’s enthusiastic support for environmental causes. But its higher purpose will be to show harmony between the two Christian denominations, with the Sistine Chapel Choir singing alongside the choirs of St George’s Chapel Windsor and His Majesty’s Chapel Royal.
Why is this significant? While there have been meetings between British monarchs and pontiffs before, there has been no recorded moment when a British monarch and Pope have prayed alongside one another at a shared church service, since the establishment of the Anglican church, when then King Henry VIII split from Rome in the 16th Century, to enable him to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon.
The BBC reports that royal sources have emphasised the historic significance of this occasion, and the fact that it reflects the King’s long-standing commitment to building bridges between our two traditions.
And why does this matter to us here in Malaga? Because we are members of the Church of England, but we live, work and worship in a country, and share much of what we do in church, with a long and deep Roman Catholic tradition. King Charles is the Defender of the Anglican faith, and as such, the nominal head of our Church.
We celebrate his meeting with Pope Leo and pray that our two traditions can find greater mutual respect and meaningful areas of future cooperation.
Read the full story on the BBC here.