Eight years ago, on the Feast of St.

Peter, the twenty ninth of June,
the choir and clergy of Westminster Abbey

were in Rome
preparing to celebrate the service

of choral evensong in one
of the great basilicas of that city.

We were just sing the evening
office of the Feast of St.

Peter in the Church
of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva,

the archetypically Anglican service
near the heart of Roman Catholicism.

We were there at the invitation of its

titular parish priest,
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor,

who was then, of course,
Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster.

This occasion was the last in a series
of remarkable events in Rome that weekend

in which the choir and clergy
of Westminster Abbey had taken part,

including a concert in another Roman
basilica, Santa Maria Maggiore,

and a recital in the
Vatican's Sistine Chapel.

Then on the feast itself of Saint Peter,
quite early in the morning, we were in St.

Peter's Basilica in Rome,

awaiting the beginning of a solemn mass to
be celebrated by Pope Benedict the 16th.

This was St.
Peter's Day in St.

Peter's Basilica,
built over the place of Saint Peter's burial

at a service presided over
by the successor of Saint Peter.

The Choir of Westminster Abbey was to sing

the service with the pope's own choir
and the clergy at Westminster Abbey were

to have a prominent place
in the congregation.

Westminster Abbey, this archetypically Anglican community,

had a place on this occasion
at the heart of Roman Catholicism.

These were moments without precedent.

Anglican choirs have sung in Rome.

But now for the first time,
a choir would sing at a papal liturgy

alongside the Sistine Chapel choir.
The two choirs forming one choir.

Anglican and Roman Catholic.

Together.

And the invitation,
which was from the Pope himself,

was one of the fruits of his
visit to Great Britain

ten years ago this year.

When the pope joined us in the Abbey

on the 17th of September 2010 for an
ecumenical service of evening prayer,

I was struck by the irony
that 450 years after the split with Rome,

Benedict the 16th was the first ever
pope to visit Westminster Abbey.

The church dedicated to Saint Peter,
which for 600 years as a Benedictine abbey

had enjoyed a close relationship
of mutual support with the papacy.

The events I'm describing constituted
a genuine ecumenical exchange.

The pope in the abbey reminding the people
of England of our rich Christian heritage.

The Abbey choir in Rome

contributing to the worship
for the English choral tradition.

So what happened then

was that the choir and clergy
of Westminster took the abbey on a return

pilgrimage to Rome
to pray before the tomb of Saint Peter,

the apostle and master, our patron saint.

Our presence and our prayer likewise
implored the gift of Christian unity.

For several of those who heard this

in Rome, one moment stood out
at the papal mass.

The Abbey choir sang William Byrd's motet

Ave verum corpus
addressed to our Lord Jesus Christ

present in the Blessed Sacrament
Hail, true body born of Mary.

Monsignor Mark Langham,

then working in Rome,
wrote to me afterwards to say,

For English Roman Catholics,
Byrd's Ave verum is an iconic work

that summons up the whole
recusant experience. To hear it.

sung by Westminster Abbey Choir

at Papal Mass, was a massive
reconfiguration of experience.

Not denying personal history,
but putting it into a far larger context

and bringing an inexpressible
sense of joy and hope.

Events can create a fresh
perspective on history.

Divisions are hard to heal.

Broken bodies take time to mend.

Kept apart.

They grow apart.

And the divergences between

Rome and Canterbury
are significant to our own day

as the unhealed memories
to 450 years of history apart.

There is much that divides the Church

of England, the Anglican Communion
from the Roman Catholic Church.

And yet there is so
much we hold in common,

so much we've always held together

one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all.

And, of course, so much more.

In God's good time and by God's grace,

the effect of our joint pilgrimage,
our  journeying together

above all of our own,
closer walking with our Lord and savior

Jesus Christ, in the company
of the saints and angels.

We'll be of fuller sharing

a Eucharistic communion
between our churches.

Not uniformity, but unity in diversity.

When the world will truly see how
these Christians love one another.