Archbishop Rowan Williams Leads Southwark Diocese Centenary Celebrations

Over the weekend, the Southwark Diocese centenary celebrations took place, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams in attendance. The event took place at Lambeth Palace garden and saw a host of leading bishops and clergy attend.

In an open air sermon at the Eucharist, Rev Rowan Williams used the opportunity to highlight the issue of the moment, and spoke about the ethical issues surrounding poverty and the compassion Christians needed to have towards their fellow man. He said, "Pandemics, poverty and ecological degradation are everyone's business, and there is no escape pod reserved for those who are comfortable and prosperous just at the moment."

"Suddenly, the question 'Who is my neighbour?' has a very clear answer: my neighbour is the person who lives next door, is the suffering stranger in Africa or South-East Asia or wherever poverty, disease and disaster are found.

"My life is as much bound up with this as with the lives of people who happen to be more like me. And there is nothing abstract or idealistic about the call to love this neighbour: this is the most realistic command that could be given," Dr Williams concluded.

Over 2,000 people gathered for the Southwark Diocese centenary to watch and listen as Archbishop Williams preached a guiding message to the congregation.

The Archbishop of Canterbury also used the address to speak about his frequent journeys along Old Kent Road in London. Of the huge diversity and mixture of cultures that could be seen there, Dr Williams compared it to the various characters who walked the same road in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

In attendance, were also three bishops from Southwark’s link diocese in Zimbabwe. Bishop Sebastian Bakare from the Manicaland Diocese made a request for the people of Southwark to "pray more and more" for the people of Zimbabwe to be able to finally live in a peaceful environment.

On Sunday the celebrations continued at Southwark Cathedral with a special 3 p.m. service. The service was broadcast outside on huge screens, and later one hundred doves were released to mark the special occasion.