On 21 September 2025, the centenary of the Malines Conversations was marked in Mechelen, Belgium. A conference and academic session were held to mark this historic occasion, and the event concluded with an Evensong service at Saint Rumbold’s Cathedral.
The Malines Conversations were a series of five ecumenical conversations held in Mechelen (Malines) Belgium from 1921 to 1927 which explored possibilities for the corporate reunion between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. The Malines Conversations paved the way for the ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic and Anglican traditions which continues today.
The centenary events brought together Church leaders and scholars for a conference featuring contributions from Monseigneur Luc Terlinden, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, the Most Revd Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham, the Right Revd Dr Robert Innes, Bishop in Europe, and the Most Revd Ian Ernest, Retired Archbishop and Primate of the Province of the Indian Ocean.
The academic session which followed the conference included reflections from His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and His Excellency Johan Bonny,
Bishop of Antwerp, and the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell.
Archbishop Bernard Longley delivered the Homily at the evensong service which closed the commemorative celebrations.
Read Archbishop Bernard’s homily in full below.
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.
I would like to offer my thanks to the members of the Malines Conversations Group who began planning for this centenary celebration some time before the Covid pandemic took the world by storm. Thank you for your determination to bring us together in this way to celebrate the remarkable initiative that resulted in the Malines Conversations between 2021 and 2025. It is a great blessing that here we can reflect in tranquillity on the fruits of those conversations that continue to nourish the Church of today.
I am also pleased, as we come together in prayer this evening in this magnificent Cathedral dedicated to St Rumbold, to recall the historic spiritual association between Flanders and the Celtic missionaries from Britain and Ireland who strengthened the preaching of the Gospel which had lately been received by the people of Brabant. For us as Christians from different traditions our friendship deepens by recognising that we jointly share the heritage of St Rumbold and the missionary saints who witnessed so effectively to their faith in Christ.
The desire to fulfil the will of Christ that they all may be one was deep-rooted in the hearts of individual Anglicans and Roman Catholics alike in the early twentieth century. The separate initiatives of Fr Paul Wattson and the Abbé Paul Couturier bear witness to this, as they inspired the members of both our Communions to pray regularly and fervently for the unity of the Church.
But the institutional responses to this movement of the heart and mind tell a different story in each of the two Communions. Our thanks are due to the Lambeth Conference of 1920 with its Appeal to All Christian People and the pathway it offered to Anglicans and other Christians towards visible unity. While Viscount Halifax clearly drew great encouragement from the Anglican bishops’ appeal, it would still fail to alter the ultramontane suspicions of the Roman Catholic hierarchy of England and Wales about ecumenical dialogue.
At that time a wider vision was needed – and it was found, thanks to Lord Halifax’s friendships on the continent and the entrée these gave him to Cardinal Mercier here in Mechelen. Through the resultant conversations a fresh vision was to emerge – that of l’église anglicane unie, mais non absorbée. For the Catholic Church of the 1920s it was to prove a vision ahead of its time – but for us today a prophetic vision that now gives energy and hope to our partnerships in the ARCIC dialogue and through the bishops of the International Anglican/Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission.
This evening’s Gospel reading, proclaimed by Cardinal Koch, sets Jesus in the midst of our celebration. In St John’s account it is the astonishment of those who hear Jesus in the temple that affords him an opportunity to explain his learning and the origin of his teaching. Encounter with others who may be surprised at what they see in us – who may question what motivates us or even oppose our manners and our beliefs – such encounters enable us to learn from one another. Encounters such as these led to the Malines Conversations.
Ultimately, it is Jesus’ will for the unity of his followers that we strive to understand and that we seek to obey. In this year, when we commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, we rejoice together in our shared faith in Christ which finds expression in the Nicene Creed.
The anniversary of the Council of Nicaea provides an interpretative backdrop to our centenary celebrations tonight. The intention and the desire of the Council Fathers – as they gathered in the year 325 for the first time in this way – was ultimately to bring about unity within the Church. Over the intervening centuries differences of theological and ecclesial opinion have not always been shared or debated in charity. We can therefore be grateful that the Malines Conversations were based on firmer foundations of friendship, allowing for a fruitful exchange, influencing and encouraging us to this day.
Speaking to delegates at a recent Catholic/Orthodox ecumenical symposium in Rome, Pope Leo recalled that the Council of Nicaea was not merely an event of the past but a compass that must continue to guide us towards the full visible unity of Christians.
In the same address and quoting a document of the International Theological Commission marking this anniversary, the Holy Father observed that in 2025 Nicaea represents an invaluable opportunity to emphasize that what we have in common is much stronger, quantitively and qualitatively, than what divides us. Together, we believe in the Triune God, in Christ as truly human and truly God, and in salvation through Jesus Christ, according to the Scriptures read in the Church, baptism, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal life.
Christ is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation and through his Incarnation he is the perfect image of humanity, unfolding God’s plan of salvation. That plan of salvation becomes a reality in every time and place through the mission of the Body of Christ, the Church, with Christ as the Head of the Body, directing and overseeing the work of its members.
The relationship between the head and the body – Christ and his Church – is a shared life and every member of the body is given a particular task for the good of the whole. St John Henry Cardinal Newman speaks of this when he writes: God has created me to do some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know in this life, but I shall be told in the next.’
On 31 July this year Pope Leo confirmed that the title of Doctor of the Universal Church would soon be conferred on Cardinal Newman. Cardinal Newman is only the second Englishman to be afforded this title, after St Bede the Venerable, for the historic and abiding impact of his teaching on the universal Church. It is especially noteworthy for us that his writings, first as an Anglican and then as a Roman Catholic, were considered by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints as a single entire corpus of written work, leading to him being declared a Doctor of the Church.
The Malines Conversations are an early expression of ecumenical synodality – a prophetic, if interrupted, attempt to walk the pathway of Christian faith together as Anglicans and Roman Catholics. As you will know, the Catholic Church has been reflecting on and rediscovering the fruits of synodality in recent years.
Through the ongoing synodal conversations at universal, regional and local levels, the desire to ‘walk together’ continues to bear fruit. To listen and discern as we travel together along the pathway ahead of us is re-shaping the body of Christ as the visible sign of Christ’s presence in the world.
Our prayer and reflection together over the last four days has reminded us that we are among the members of Christ’s body. Through our baptismal calling we share the common vocation and mission to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ – but we do so, recognising that we need the gifts of God’s Holy Spirit to guide and to console us as we wait for Christ, the fullness of God, to be fully formed in us.
Our Lord has said to us: Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. The Malines Conversations were a brave attempt to overcome the prejudices and stereotypes that would continue to hamper the progress of dialogue and shared witness between Anglicans and Roman Catholics before these were challenged and corrected for the Catholic Church by the teaching of the Second Vatican Council.
This evening the Archbishop of York led us in the profession of our common faith. We have been united in prayer with the Earl of Halifax and with Archbishop Terlinden, recalling their visionary predecessors whose stirring images in stained glass adorn our Service Booklets. The synodal pathway towards full, visible unity – unie, non absorbée – still lies ahead of us.
Encouraged by the continuing work of the Malines Conversations Group, and by our recent days together, we ask Our Lord to fulfil his purposes in us: that they may all be one.
Archbishop Bernard Longley
Archbishop of Birmingham, Chair of the Department for Dialogue and Unity
