Archbishop of York presents gifts from Yorkshire to the Pope as part of the Christian Unity Prayer Celebrations

In addition to praying, preaching and presiding with Christian Communities from all denominations in Rome, Dr. Sentamu met Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Walter Kasper - the Vatican's head of inter-church relations, Archbishop Pius Ncube - the former Archbishop of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, and British Ambassadors to the Vatican and Italy.

During his meeting with the Pope, the Archbishop presented gifts from Yorkshire which included bottles of "Holy Grail" and "Black Sheep Ale" from the Black Sheep Brewery. The gifts were chosen to reflect the Pope's appreciation of Bavarian beer. The Archbishop also gave an illustrated history of York Minster and a cut glass beer tankard from the Minster.

In his meeting with Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican's head of inter-church relations, the Archbishop discussed the state of relations between the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church, about future working, and the Lambeth conference which takes place later this year.

The Archbishop also met with The Most Reverend Pius Ncube, the former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, who has been one of Zimbabwe's leading critics of the Zimbabwean regime. During their meeting, Archbishop Pius spoke of the continued suffering of the Zimbabwean people under Robert Mugabe and expressed his delight in Dr. Sentamu's support of ordinary Zimbabweans.

As part of the week of prayer for Christian Unity, the Archbishop took time to visit two of Rome's main centres for services to the poor, run by Church communities. The Community of San Egidio has been working with the poor of the city for over two decades and is now an international organisation who recently aided peace efforts in Mozambique through its work in that country. Dr. Sentamu visited the community's homeless shelter and school before preaching at the community's evening service in the Church of San Batolomeo. The Archbishop was also able to pray at the shrine for the murdered Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, Janani Luwum, who is commemorated at the Church.

Dr. Sentamu also called on St. Paul's refugee centre, operated by the Episcopal Church of the United States. During this visit to Rome's only day centre for refugees and asylum seekers, the Archbishop spent time meeting and speaking with users of the centre as well as being shown the facilities which include Italian language classes for both adults and children.

ENDS

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