The Archbishops of York and Canterbury have issued a joint statement calling for Christians to “repent of our part in perpetuating divisions” in the church as the world prepares to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
The Reformation anniversary marks the 500th year since the publication of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses on 31st October, 1517, a moment seen as instrumental in splitting Western Christianity into Catholic and Protestant denominations.
In their statement, the Church of England’s Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Archbishop of York John Sentamu, said that many Christians will this year want to give thanks for the “great blessings they have received to which the Reformation directly contributed” including the “clear proclamation of the gospel of grace, the availability of the Bible to all in their own language and the recognition of the calling of lay people to serve God in the world and in the church”.
But they also said that many will also remember the “lasting damage done five centuries ago to the unity of the church, in defiance of the clear command of Jesus Christ to unity in love”.
“Those turbulent years saw Christian people pitted against each other, such that many suffered persecution and even death at the hands of others claiming to know the same Lord. A legacy of mistrust and competition would then accompany the astonishing global spread of Christianity in the centuries that followed. All this leaves us much to ponder.”
They said remembering the Reformation “should bring us back to what the Reformers wanted to put at the centre of every person’s life, which is a simple trust in Jesus Christ” but added that it should also “lead us to repent of our part in perpetuating divisions”.
“Such repentance needs to be linked to action aimed at reaching out to other churches and strengthening relationships with them…” they said. “We therefore call on all Christians to seek to be renewed and united in the truth of the gospel of Christ through our participation in the Reformation Anniversary, to repent of divisions, and, held together in Him, to be a blessing to the world in obedience to Jesus Christ.”
The statement was issued at the start of the ecumenical Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which runs from 18th to 25th January.
