C of E archbishops call on Christians to repent

for Reformation split

Justin Welby and John Sentamu recall damage done ve centuries ago that saw
Christian people pitted against each other

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, left, and the archbishop of York, John Sentamu. Photograph:
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent

Tuesday 17 January 2017 18.41GMT

It unleashed an orgy of death and destruction across Europe. In England

alone, more than 800 monasteries, abbeys, nunneries and friaries were
seized, libraries were destroyed, manuscripts lost, treasures stripped and
works of art appropriated. Thousands of people were hung, drawn and
quartered, or burnt at the stake for their religious beliefs.

Five hundred years after the Reformation, the religious revolution that
swept across Europe, the leaders of the Church of England - itself created in
the decades of upheaval - have called on Christians to repent for the
divisions, persecution and death.

The archbishops of Canterbury and York issued a statement on Tuesday

recalling the lasting damage done ve centuries ago to the unity of the
Church, in deance of the clear command of Jesus Christ to unity in love.

Justin Welby and John Sentamu, the two most senior gures in the C of E,
said: Those turbulent years saw Christian people pitted against each other,
such that many suered 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.

This years commemorations, their statement concluded, should lead all

Christians 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.

Throughout 2017, churches across Europe will mark the 31 October

anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses protesting against the
corruption of the Roman Catholic church to a church door in Wittenberg,
Germany. The act lit the fuse of the greatest schism in western Christianity
and triggered a string of religious wars across Europe.

Luther fundamentally challenged the authority and elitism of the Catholic

church. His theses, written in Latin, were a backlash against the highly
protable sale of indulgences promoted as fast-track tickets to heaven to
fund the building of St Peters Basilica in Rome. He declared that when it
came to justication avoiding hell or gaining admission to heaven
there could be no mediation, no brokering by the church. Salvation was a
matter between an individual and God.

This revolutionary stance was swiftly translated into German and other
European languages, and Luthers ideas spread across Europe within weeks
thanks to new printing presses, triggering religious, political, intellectual
and cultural upheaval.

Rome condemned him as a heretic, removed him from the priesthood and
banned his writings. In response, the monk publicly burned the papal bull,
or edict. The sale of indulgences plummeted and his ideas took hold.
As well as widespread bloodshed the Reformation unleashed terrible
destruction of religious heritage and art, but it also gave rise to new forms of
art, music and literature.

In England, Henry VIII angered by the popes refusal to allow him to

divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn broke with Rome and
established himself as the head of the Church of England.

The archbishops statement, issued on the eve of Christian unity week,

follows a plea last autumn by Pope Francis for forgiveness for divisions
perpetuated by Christians from the two traditions.

The leader of the Roman Catholic church said the anniversary of the
Reformation was an opportunity to mend a critical moment of our history
by moving beyond the controversies and disagreements that have often
prevented us from understanding one another.

The separation has been an immense source of suering and

misunderstanding, the ponti said.

Francis has put ecumenicalism at the heart of his papacy, building on a slow
rapprochement between the Catholic and Protestant traditions. In
September, the leaders of the Catholic and main Protestant churches in
Germany issued a joint text calling for a healing of memories of past
divisions.

There are, however, ercely traditionalist elements in both denominations

opposed to any moves towards closer relations, let alone unity.

Welby and Sentamus statement also pointed to the great blessings to

which the Reformation directly contributed.

Amongst much else these would include 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 laypeople to serve God in the world and in the
church, they wrote.

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