In Canterbury Cathedral, England, there is a large mural depicting the arrival of Augustine from Rome, and then a second one showing the British Bishops refusing to accept him as their archbishop. These early British Bishops rejected both the teachings of Roman Catholicism and Augustine in these words: "Be it known and declared that we all, individually and collectively, are in all humility prepared to defer to the Church of God, and to the Bishops of Rome, and to every sincere and godly Christian, so far as to love everyone according to his degree, in perfect charity, and to assist them all by word and in deed in becoming the children of God. But as for any other obedience, we know of none that he whom you term Pope, or Bishop of Bishops, can demand. The deference we have mentioned, we are ready to pay to him as to every other Christian, but in all other respects our obedience is due to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Caerleon (Chester) who is alone under God our ruler to keep us right in the way of salvation." Thus ended Rome's first ecumenical overtures to Britain. It would be a good thing if our British Bishops of today heeded the advice of their brethren in dealing with Rome 1,300 years ago!

The Venerable Bede, one of Britain's great scholars in A.D. 740, declared, "The Britons are contrary to the whole Roman world, and enemies to the Roman customs, not only in their mass, but in their head tonsure."

Let us heed these words, even though it is over 1,200 years later.