Methodist President will meet Pope Benedict XVI

Here is the text of a press release issued by the Methodist Church yesterday (7 September 2010). 

The President of the Methodist Conference, Revd Alison Tomlin, will meet Pope Benedict XVI during his four day state visit to the UK next week.

She will travel to Edinburgh on Thursday (September 16) for Pope Benedict’s arrival and Official State Greeting by Her Majesty The Queen at Holyrood Palace. On Friday (September 17) she will be presented to Pope Benedict at Westminster Abbey where Church leaders will join the Archbishop of Canterbury in a celebration of Evening Prayer.

Revd Alison Tomlin said: “It’s great for the whole Church that Pope Benedict is coming to the UK. It’s really important that the different parts of the Church talk to each other and I am glad other Church leaders have been invited to meet him.

“Because of my work in spirituality, I meet with a lot of Catholics involved with Ignatian Spirituality, particularly Jesuit priests. The Catholic Church has been more ecumenically engaged in this country than in other countries. It would be good if we could build on that.

“I think it’s important for Methodism that we have been invited to meet The Pope. I do see it as an acknowledgement of the Methodist Church in Britain.”