AN URGENT APPEAL
As everyone who has visited us at the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj knows so well, the Anglican Centre in Rome is a place of transformation and encounter between Christians of diverse cultures, working passionately for unity between Anglicans and Roman Catholics. We now seek your urgent support as we try to sustain our work at a time when our income has been dramatically reduced.
Our reserves are running dangerously low, and our financial position places the survival of the Centre in its current form at serious risk. Over the last few years, we have taken focussed cost-cutting measures, and continue to manage our expenditure very carefully. But for over a year, we have been unable to welcome visitors to Rome or to run courses and events. In such a financial climate, raising money for ecumenism gets harder and harder, and many grant-making bodies which have previously supported us now need to streamline their own giving. It is completely understandable that dioceses, parishes and individuals across the world are under their own financial constraints.
Today, we appeal for funds to help the Centre fulfil its mission emerging from the most difficult time it has ever faced, so that our urgent work can continue and emerge refreshed to serve the Church and work for the full visible unity of Christians as it has for over half a century. In 2016, the Centre’s annual operating budget was €435,000. It has now been reduced to €276,800. However, over a similar period our income has fallen from €400,000 to an estimated €168,100 for 2021. Through this appeal, we are seeking to raise €200,000 to give the Centre some stability over the next two years, during which time we expect visitor numbers to rebound whilst we continue to grow our global Friends network and seek out other sources of funding from around the world.[1]
Your support will help the Centre move into a new and exciting period of its life. Next year, the Primates of the Anglican Communion will gather to meet in Rome for the first time. The Anglican Centre will be ready to host them for this historic occasion. International groups of seminarians and young clergy from different parts of the Anglican world will come together to encounter the heart of the Catholic Church and grow to understand one another better. Exciting online learning programmes for all have already been announced. We will be ready to welcome you, your dioceses and parishes, and to support the essential work of the international theological dialogue between Anglicans and Catholics.
To ensure all this, we urgently need your help. Further down this page, you can find details of how to make a donation. If you would like to discuss making a substantial gift, please contact the Chair of the Appeal, The Revd Dr James Hawkey on james.hawkey@westminster-abbey.org.
An urgent appeal would only ever be announced for an extraordinary time. That time is now. Please help us continue this key mission in the very heart of Rome.
Archbishop Ian Ernest Bishop Michael Burrows
Director of the Anglican Centre Chair of Governors
