|PIC1|The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has told the Church of England that the two Churches must continue to seek deeper unity and confront the challenges of secular society together.

In his first and almost certainly last address to the Church of England’s General Synod before he retires, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor said Anglicans and Catholics needed to keep working towards the goal of visible and sacramental communion “even if it still seems so distant”.

"In the end our ecumenical journey has to be a journey towards fuller communion," he said on Monday, the start of the five-day Synod at Church House in Westminster.

"I must say that we cannot give up on that ultimate goal even if it still seems so distant. It has to be visible and sacramental communion. We are Eucharistic communities and the communion we seek is Eucharistic – communion in one Eucharist and in the ministries, faith and authority that make it possible. Full communion is more than rediscovering a shared history, or fellow-feeling, and it is more than the parallel structures of life and worship that currently exist between us."

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor was invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to speak at Synod on ongoing efforts towards unity. He based his address on a document on communion he helped draw up 18 years ago as co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and which was “noted” by Synod in a debate today.

Efforts towards unity between the two Churches have cooled in recent years in light of the Anglican Communion’s jostle over homosexuality and divisions in the Church of England over the consecration of women bishops.

In today’s address, the Cardinal went on to express regret over challenges to unity among Anglicans.

"Divisions within any church or eccclesial community impoverish the communion of the whole Church. We Roman Catholics cannot be indifferent to what is happening to our friends in the Anglican Communion and, in particular, in the Church of England,” he said.

|PIC1|"All I can say – and I would not want to be misinterpreted - is that it is only in a fuller and deeper unity that the truth and the demands of the Gospel are to be discerned. In this sense, unity is a prerequisite to truth and you should not settle for less – even if it takes time."

He noted, nonetheless, that it was up to the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches in England “to set the tone and the style, and the impetus that can carry our ecumenical journey forward” and pointed to “receptive ecumenism” as one possible way forward.

“Is it not true we can learn and receive from each other aspects of faith and ecclesiology, life, worship and spirituality that in fact belong to the whole Church, as Pope John Paul put it in his encyclical?” he asked. “In the past we have often seemed to ask, explicitly or implicitly: ‘what do others need to learn from us?’ At this time the way forward may come rather from the opposite question: ‘What can we with integrity learn for our own church from the life of faith of others?’”

The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Tom Wright, said there were some Anglicans and Catholics frustrated at not being able to take communion together. He suggested they try to come together in shared study of the Bible.

“Let’s make that a priority in our ecumenical work … We have no idea where it might take us but unless we try we won’t ever find out,” he said.

He appealed to Synod members to learn lessons from the book of Galatians, which tells of the broken communion that arose when Peter refused to eat at same table as those not circumcised.

“When Paul articulates the doctrine of justification by faith in Galatians 2 it means precisely this: that all those who believe in Jesus Christ belong at the same table no matter what their background may have been. And it is as we walk like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, with Scripture burning in our hearts together, that we are aiming at that goal, that we get to the same table with the same Lord breaking the bread and making Him hereby known,” he said.

The General Synod faces a packed agenda, with debates scheduled over the course of the week on the international financial crisis, the problem of human trafficking, and the uniqueness of Christ among other issues.

On Wednesday morning, Synod members will discuss the draft legislation required to allow the consecration of women as bishops. The purpose of the debate is not to move amendments to the draft legislation but to decide on whether it should be sent to a Revision Committee for consideration.