Archbishop Ian Ernest speaks to Vatican News about the pre-synod ecumenical prayer vigil to be held in St Peter’s Square on Saturday evening, saying that, while it may be the first of its kind, he’s confident it won’t be the last.
“Pope Francis’ call to all Christians to come together in St Peter’s Square … is something that brings hope to the world.”
That’s the bold claim made by Archbishop Ian Ernest, Personal Representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Holy See, in an interview with Vatican News.
He goes on to explain what he means.
“It’s all the baptised”, he says, “coming together in St Peter’s Square to pray for a Church which is engaging itself in a Synod to change the face of the world.”
“This initiative comes out of a journey,” he continues, “a journey where there has been recognition of the other as a brother and sister in Christ, a journey which really seals the fact that our baptism brings us together.”
The centrality of prayer
On Saturday evening, thousands of pilgrims will gather in St Peter’s Square, together with religious leaders from various Christian denominations, including the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
They are gathering to prayerfully entrust the Catholic Church’s synodal process to the Holy Spirit.
Asked about the role of prayer in the Synod, Archbishop Ernest stresses that “nothing can bring us into a relationship without being rooted in prayer, in our own relationship with God.”
Thus, he says, prayer “helps us to create an atmosphere where the word ‘relationship’ is not a vain one, but something lived, that allows us to see ourselves as belonging to the same family.”
It is because of this prayerfulness, he adds, that he finds the synodal process underway in the Catholic Church “very inspiring.”
Sometimes, he says, synodality can devolve into “a parliamentary affair, where everyone defends their own idea.”
That, he stresses, is not the point: rather, synodality involves “consulting with each other about the affairs of our Father, to see how best we could be faithful servants of God.”
