Responding to the Pope’s message marking her Installation, the Archbishop of Canterbury has sent the following letter to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV today. 

His Holiness Pope Leo XIV

00120 Vatican City

Your Holiness,

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”(John 1:14)

I am deeply grateful for your gracious letter, and for the assurance of your prayers at the time of my installation as Archbishop of Canterbury. Your words of encouragement, and your invocation of the Holy Spirit’s guidance, are received with profound appreciation.

I give thanks for your generous recognition of the enduring fruits of our ecumenical path, not least through the work of ARCIC and IARCCUM. I share your conviction that our continued dialogue in truth and love is both a gift and a calling, so that together we may bear more faithful witness to the Gospel in a world in need of grace, mercy, and peace.

Thank you also for your prayers for me and for the ministry entrusted to my care. In your address, the day after your installation, to representatives of other Churches and ecclesial communities, as well as other religions (19 May 2025), you wrote: “As Bishop of Rome, I consider one of my priorities to be that of seeking the re-establishment of full and visible communion among all those who profess the same faith in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

As Archbishop of Canterbury, I too am called to serve as an instrument of communion within the Anglican Communion, and to seek the full and visible unity to which our Lord has called us all (John 17:21). We Christians are called to pray and to strive together towards this end, step by step, mindful that it is, above all, the work of the Holy Spirit. I would therefore ask, in all humility, that you continue to pray for the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion, that we may be guided by the Holy Spirit in faithfulness, unity, and charity.

Please be assured of my own prayers for Your Holiness, that the Lord may sustain and strengthen you in your apostolic ministry.

As you so beautifully recalled the example of Mary, the Mother of God, she remains ever before me – not only in her faithful obedience as the servant of the Lord, but as a profound sign and image of the Church itself: the Body of Christ, called to receive the Word, to bear Him within, and to bring forth life for the sake of the world, as the life-giving Spirit forms Christ within us, so that the Word made flesh may be made present among us.

I very much look forward to meeting Your Holiness in the near future and to continuing to strengthen the bonds of friendship and our shared commitment.

With the assurance of my prayers and with sentiments of deep esteem,

Yours sincerely in Christ,

+Sarah
Archbishop of Canterbury