One Shepherd

'The Holy Eucharist', 1865, by Edmund Sedding (1836-1868)

​‘We, the undersigned Priests and Deacons (or lay communicants) of the Catholic Church, in full communion with the See of Canterbury, desire, in respectfully approaching your Lordships, to express our deep sense of sorrow at the long continuance of the divisions of Christendom, and our deep sense of the manifold evils which result from this.
 
…We are mindful of the efforts made in former times by English and foreign Bishops and theologians, to effect, by mutual explanations on either side, a reconciliation between the Roman and Anglican communions.
 
And, considering the ultimate and visible unity which existed between the Church of England and the rest of Western Christendom, we earnestly entreat your Lordships seriously to consider the best means of renewing like endeavours; and to adopt such measures as may, under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, be effectual in removing the barriers which now divide the Western branch of the Catholic Church.
 
But fully conscious that so great a gift as the healthful reunion of Christendom cannot be obtained by any effort of mere human wisdom, we further ask your Lordships specially to commend to the members of your flocks earnest and persevering prayer that God would so pour his love into the hearts of all Christians, that they may be drawn to be again one fold under one Shepherd’.
 
from a letter signed by 1,112 clergy (including Benson, Butler, Carter, Lee, Lowder, Mackonochie, and Pusey) and 4,453 laymen of the Church of England, to the bishops of the Anglican Communion gathering at Lambeth for the first time in 1867.