ENGLAND: London's St. Paul's Cathedral admits Roman Catholic abbot as honorary canon

September 10, 2009 [Episcopal News Service] Abbot Edmund Power, a Roman Catholic Benedictine monk, was admitted as an honorary canon of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, on September 9.

Power is an abbot at St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of the five major basilicas in Rome, "where his work in revitalizing the monastic life through teaching ecumenism and the mission has been recognized by Pope Benedict XVI," according to a press release from St. Paul's Cathedral.

The Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls has a long running connection with St. Paul's Cathedral, London that dates back as far as the 7th century. It was the Roman Abbot St. Mellitus who built the first St. Paul's Cathedral in 604, and in the 14th century it was customary for the British sovereign to be a canon of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Bishop Richard Chartres of London, who delivered the sermon at the service, described Power's installation as a "symbolic freight."

Chartres acknowledged that King Henry VIII in the mid-16th century "played his part of course in destroying the unity of the Western church ... Tonight we are doing a little to retrieve the precious fragments of our shattered unity; repairing the breach and restoring the ancient paths."

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