As the influence of the church wanes in developed nations, our brothers and sisters in the Third World can provide new insight into the gospel, according to the Most Rev. Donald Coggan, 101st Archbishop of Canterbury.

Speaking at Trinity School for Ministry, the retired archbishop predicted the next pope will be an African. "He'll do that great [Catholic] communion a world of good," he said. "And I want to see a black Archbishop of Canterbury. We've gotten used to sending [Christianity] to Africa ... Now we must learn to receive from them."

The archbishop's remarks to seminarians came during a visit to the Diocese of Pittsburgh in May. Archbishop Coggan, who headed the Church of England from 1974 to 1980, now lives in Winchester, where he keeps a busy schedule of speaking and writing.

He drew from his most recent book, The Servant Son (released in the U.S. this spring by Abingdon Press), for a series of public lectures at Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh. He illustrated the talks with several personal references, including a pivotal experience during World War II.

"I was on a train coming down from London to take up the presidency of a school with no staff or students or buildings," he recalled. "Because of the fear of raids, there was a blackout. I'm a very earthy person, not given to seeing visions or hearing voices. And yet in the darkness I clearly heard a voice saying, 'You did not choose me. I chose you and appointed you'."

In the difficult years ahead, he said, "Again and again the message of that rough night came to nerve me, undergird me, steel me."

God's call and our response was also the theme of a message to young people. Speaking at a diocesan acolyte festival, the 86-year-old archbishop acknowledged that "Being a Christian in 1995 is very, very tough. You don't just slide into being a Christian. You commit yourself. You say no to things like drugs that ruin lives, and you say yes to tough demands ... And yes to God's grace and strength, and yes to the church and its companionship."

The Rt. Rev. Alden M. Hathaway, Bishop of Pittsburgh, was host for the week. At the final service at the cathedral, Bishop Donald Wuerl joined his Anglican colleagues to bring greetings from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

This article incorporates reporting by Rebekah Scott of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.