LOCAL BULLETIN

Ecumenical society holds reception to mark 40 years
THE ECUMENICAL Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary has celebrated its 40th anniversary at a reception at Lambeth Palace, writes Amanda C Dickie .
Anglican Bishop Christopher Hill of Guildford welcomed the society on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and said that one of its great achievements had been to provide a major archive of theological resource on Mary and ecumenism that had been used in preparation for the 2005 Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission's document Mary, Grace and Hope in Christ. Fr Bill McLaughlin, the general secretary, read a message from Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who recently became a patron. He said that the society had helped bring about an important transition so that Mary is "seen less as a source of division and increasingly one who we jointly understand to be the Mother of God". Others present included Abbot Aidan Bellenger of Downside Abbey, Archimandrite Aemilianos Papadakis and Dom Alberic Stacpoole OSB.