DR ROWAN WILLIAMS, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is expected to make his first formal visit to Pope Benedict XVI in Rome this year in an attempt to heal the centuries-old rift between the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.

The two church leaders are expected to attend at least one service together, probably vespers at the basilica of St Paul’s-Without-The-Walls.

The meeting, which awaits confirmation from Rome, is being organised to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the meeting in 1966 between Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey, the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr Williams still wears the ring given by the Pope to Lord Ramsey on that visit.

At the meeting, the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury will also begin the third round of formal talks between the two churches. Senior Catholics in Britain admit that relations between the two churches have reached a “plateau”.

The third Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, known as Arcic III, is expected to examine issues around the “local and universal church”. This will include a discussion of the increasing numbers of Anglican and Catholic parishes that share church buildings and non-eucharistic services.

Vatican watchers are predicting that the meeting could herald an “ecumenical spring” after the disappointments of the past decade. With hopes of full unity at an end, Catholics say that the emphasis now will be on “unity in diversity”.

It was the election of an openly gay man, Gene Robinson, as Bishop of New Hampshire in the episcopal church of the United States that plunged the churches into what Vatican cardinals talk of as an “ecumenical winter”. Frank Griswold, the presiding bishop of the US church, resigned as co-chairman of the second round of Arcic talks, and soon afterwards the second Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission was wound up.

At a meeting in Rome last month, Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, referred to the “disillusionment and stagnation” surrounding dialogue with other churches. He said the difficulties centred on identity.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, who visited Pope John Paul II six times, told The Times: “It is true that we are living in an ecumenical winter. It has got even icier since the American church’s decision to consecrate Gene Robinson which goes completely against the Catholic position and the historic position of the Anglican Communion as well. Rowan’s personal contact and commitment is going to be the key thing. All we can hope for is that he keeps the fire burning.”

Hopes for unity talks were initially lowered by the election last year of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new Pope.

In 2001 the future Pope co-authored the document Dominus Iesus, in which he stated that churches that had not preserved the “valid episcopate” were not “churches in the proper sense”. The election of Bishop Robinson merely served to confirm Catholic teaching that Anglican orders were invalid, and thus that the Anglican Church was not a “proper” church.

In addition, the ordination of women means that the Catholic Church is unlikely now ever to retract its 19th century papal bull, Apostolicae Curae, which described Anglican orders as “absolutely null and utterly void”.

But sources close to the Pope indicated that since he had taken over, he had shown an unexpected enthusiasm for talks with the Anglicans and in particular with the Orthodox.

One leading theologian has told friends how he emerged from a recent meeting with Pope Benedict XVI surprised and impressed by his enthusiasm to build bridges with the Anglicans.

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