The Full Text of Archbishop Rowan Williams’ Talk
in Egypt
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church

Archbishop’s Address to the 3rd Global South to South Encounter
Ain al Sukhna, Egypt
28th October 2005

I count it a great privilege to spend sadly a short time, but hopefully a time of real sharing and fellowship with you. As has been said more than once, already, the focus the centre of Anglican energy in the world is very clearly in the global south in our time and it is therefore for me an experience of learning as well as of fellowship to be with you and to seek to understand better how it is that you witness to our one Lord Jesus Christ.

Now during the preparations for this meeting, a number of suggestions were made as to what I might speak about. I think it was suggested that I might speak about the oneness of the church, or about the holiness of the church, or about the catholicity of the church, or possibly about the apostolicity of the church. So I’m actually going to talk about all of them. You will already have heard from some very distinguished and very searching presentations on all these matters, and I’ve been greatly been helped by being able to read the notes of those other presentations. I want then, simply to suggest this morning one way of holding together the four marks of the church; one way which to me seems simply the best way of seeing them as essentially about the same thing and in the light of that to offer you some reflections on each of hose marks of the church in turn. But the simple thing I want to say is that all four marks of the church are about Jesus Christ. The church is one because Jesus Christ is one; the church is holy because Jesus Christ is holy; the church is catholic because Jesus Christ is the saviour of all; the church is apostolic because, as the Father has sent Jesus, so Jesus sends us. In other words, if we are to understand the nature of the church at all, we are to understand who Jesus Christ is and what he does.
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