New Archbishop disowns pomp, colour of his enthronement

Press, 27 March 1980, Page 9

New Archbishop disowns pomp, colour of his enthronement

NZPA-Rtuler Canterbury,: England! With a fanfare of trumpets! and to the applause of re-1 ligious leaders from all overthe world, Robert Runcie was: enthroned yesterday as the! 102nd Archbishop of Canter- j bun r . He at once begged the! Christian -churches to over-! come their differences and Unite. He took his seat on the ancient marble throne of Saint Augustine but immediately. disowned the pageantry of “one of Britain’s most colourful national events. The 58-year-old Archbishop. told the biggest and most representative congregation ever assembled in Canterbury Cathedral that Christianity was better expressed by the .work done for the poor by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Roman Catholic nun who won the 1979 Nobel Prize for peace. Turning to a black churchman, Bezaleri Ndahura, whose inauguration as Ang-

lican Archbishop of FrenchI speaking Africa he will 1 attend in May,, Archbishop | Runcie said that that open--air enthronement would be ■very different — “No Cathed- • ral.'let alone trumpets there.”' ! He added: “It may be that ; the simple service to which |I will go in Africa will prove more eloquent about the uncluttered way in which the Church should live now . . . ” j In an impromptu addition! to his sermon, Archbishop: Runcie paid tribute to Arch-! : bishop Oscar Romero of San; Salvador, who was assassi-i 1 nated on Tuesday as he was! : about to celebrate Mass in a I 1 hospital. He expressed shock at the/ - Archbishop’s murder and! ; called it “a sombre reminder ■ that life and death for the , gospel are still the way in 1 which Christians are called • to change the world.” The new primate of all .! England and honorarj’ leader , I of the world’s nearly 70 mil--1 lion Anglicans then - turned

to five Roman Catholic cardinals, bearded Eastern Orthodox churchmen, and leading Protestant divines to deliver his appeal for Christian! unity. ; ! “It fills my heart with! great hope to see so many' Christian leaders assembled j here, from every part of the! globe. The vitality and spirit-1 ual energy represented here! [could be a great force for) [world peace and social jus■tice,” he said. j “Much is being done al- | ready but we are hampered (by our divisions and the : world-wide Christian Church I will not be able to speak the ! authority of Christ until it ; speaks with one voice.” Formerly Bishop of St Albans, north of London, the new Archbishop entered the Church after serving as a tank officer in World War If. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry during the Allied advance into Nazi Germany. As a of the in-

creasing effort being made to mend relations between Rome and Canterbury following their rift in the sixteenth j century, Cardinal Basil ■ Hume, Roman Catholic Arch- ! bishop of Westminster, delivered one of the Bible [readings. ! Archbishop Runcie, in an [interview before his en- ! thronement, said he was (hoping one day to embrace Pope John Paul in Canterbury Cathedral. His three predecessors have all visited the Pope at the Vatican but the gesture has not yet been reciprocated. After his enthronement, the Archbishop greeted Metropolitan Yuvenaly, head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s foreign relations department. The Russian Orthodox Church reduced the size of its delegation to the ceremony in protest at Archbishop Runcie’s support for a boycott of the Moscow Olympics.