In October 2016 the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (“IARCCUM”) held a week-long summit meeting in Canterbury and Rome that brought together 38 Anglican and Roman Catholic Bishops from around the world to celebrate and reflect upon the deepening relationship between the two traditions and to find practical ways to give expression to their unity in ecumenical mission to the world.

The highlight of the summit was a service of Vespers held at the church of San Gregorio al Celio in Rome, at which His Holiness Pope Francis and His Grace Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury jointly commissioned 19 pairs of Anglican and Roman Catholic Bishops to work together in preaching the Gospel and serving the vulnerable and marginalised. At the service, the Pope and the Archbishop committed their respective churches to work more closely together in collaborative mission and witness and signed a Common Declaration stating in part:

“The world must see us [Anglicans and Catholics] witnessing to this common faith in Jesus by acting together… For this reason we take great encouragement from the meeting during these days of so many Catholic and Anglican bishops … Today we rejoice to commission them and send them forth in pairs as the Lord sent out the seventy-two disciples. Let their ecumenical mission to those on the margins of society be a witness to all of us, and let the message go out from this holy place, as the Good News was sent out so many centuries ago, that Catholics and Anglicans will work together to give voice to our common faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to bring relief to the suffering, to bring peace where there is conflict, to bring dignity where it is denied and trampled upon…”

The aim of the Walking Together Foundation is to help realise this vision by initiating and funding
ecumenical outreach projects addressing serious social need anywhere in the world.