UTOPIAN VISION FOR CANTERBURY

From the Vicar of St. Dunstans, igned, draw May we, Ctahertteuenbds:ri.s.
your readers attention to the proposed formation of a "Friends of St. Dunstan's Church. Canterbury"?
St. Dunstan's Church was founded in the reign of William the Conqueror by Lanfranc, famous Archbishop of Canterbury. at the end of the Ilth century. The Church has historical associations with Henry II and Thomas More, sometime Lord Chancellor of England and author of Utopia, who was beheaded on Tower Hill in 1535 and canonised in 1935. His head lies within the Roper vault in the St. Nicholas Chapel in St. Dunstan's.
The Church has become a centre for pilgrimages originating in this country and overseas. We feel that St. Dunstan's could become increasingly a centre of ecumenical activity where prayer and meditation are made for Church and Christian unity.
On account of the unique association with Thomas More, the Church and parish sees the ecumenical emphasis more on Anglican/Roman Catholic relations in which sphere we feel we can make, perhaps, our greatest contribution. Already each year on the anniversary of the Martyrdom of Thomas More (July 6) a united service is held for all Christian denominations at which a Roman Catholic has preached on alternate years.
We would venture to hope that anyone interested in Christian unity or in the life, works, and influence of Thomas More would become a "Friend of St. Dunstan's". A committee has been set up to plan future activities. The inauguration day of the "Friends" will be Thursday. June 14th to coincide with the dedication of a new More memorial window by His Grace. the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury at a special service on that evening to which the "Friends" will be invited if they intimate their desire to be present. The Archbishop has given his warm approval of the aims of the Friends.
All who wish to become a Friend of St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, should send their names and addresses to the acting Hon. Secretary the Rev. Hugh 0. Albin at St. Dunstan's Vicarage, 31 St. Dunstan's Street. Canterbury, together with the minimum annual subscription of £1.50 per person or £2.50 for corporate societies. All subscriptions and donations will be acknowledged and membership cards sent out in due course.
It is hoped that all such contributions will further the ecumenical activity of the Friends as well as helping to preserve for posterity the Church which enshrines this historic vault.
(Rev.) Hugh 0. Albin (Vicar) (Canon) St. C. H . d La Thomas's (c■hatehnoul (Catholic) (FrShFurrcah. Francis Canterbury. Catholic Chaplain. University of Kent. William G. Foad (Hon. Treasurer) (Miss) Anne Roper, MBE, JP, FSA Flag Cottage. Littlestone. Kent. (Rev.) Gerald M. anur St. Peter's Methodist Church. In your report "Cantuar into Europe" (January 19) it was stated that the Abbe Couturier founded the Church Unity Octave. This is not so, The abbe did indeed introduce a watered-down version of the Octave. but this was not until 1934. .
The Church Unity Octave was founded in 1908 by the Rev. Wattson, then an Episcopalian 'clergyman, at Graymoor. New York. He had founded a community of Franciscans who were corporately received into the Church in 1909. and later that year in December Pope St. Pius X gave his blessing to the Octave. Pope Benedict XV extended the Octave to the Universal Church in 1916.
The Abbe Couturier became acquainted with a Russian Orthodox community in Lyons in 1925, and he was so impressed that he decided to work for the union of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Holy See. On a visit to a Belgian priory in Amay in l932 he first learned of the Church Unity Octave and he introduced its observance into Lyons the following year.
So as not to repel the Russian Orthodox and French Protestants he decided on an Octave of prayer during the same time as that celebrated by the Catholic Church, and in 1934 the Universal Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was conceived.
Fr. Wattson became Fr. Paul James Francis, founder of the Society of the Atonement, whose main vocation is to work for Christian unity. Members of the society arc in charge of the Westminster Cathedral Library, where the above facts may be verified.
F. A. Sealy 159 Launcelot Road,
Bromley, Kent.
Where many have gone wrong on the question of the validity of Anglican Orders can be found in Fr. John Jay Hughes' "Absolutely Null and Utterly Void". The evidence is far too lengthy for these correspondence columns. But may I draw attention to some aspect of the controversy?
Most of the language during and since the Reformation centres on a concept of the priesthood and the Mass unknown to the Early Church.
To quote Fr. John Coventry's review of a book on Concelebration (Ileythrop Journal, October 1967): "By the second century, the focus is entirely on the unity of the Eucharist itself and not in the least on the specific function (let alone the 'rights' of a minister).
"It was only centuries later. with the growth or quantitative ideas of grace and the frankly corrosive intrusion of stipends, that Masses could seem to be more important than the Mass, and celebrants than celebration." Did St. Peter and the apostles consider themselves "Massing priests"?
Historical research has gone far since 1896. Its results could hardly have been envisaged by Julius III, Paul IV, Clement XI or Leo XIII. Moreover. these Pontiffs were victims of ideas they inherited from an age not free from abuses and excesses.
John Slater
Farnborough Abbey, Farnborough, I-Iants.