An Important Anniversary

Acknowledging Anglican Orders

On this day in 1966, the Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI met in Rome. It was the first time an Archbishop of Canterbury had formally visited the Vatican in 400 years.

The Pope gave Ramsey a chalice and his archepiscopal ring, the one he received as Archbishop of Milan. This act itself was an acknowledgement on his part of the validity of Holy Orders in the Anglican tradition, or as has been sometimes called, “The Church of Canterbury.”