The cover showing Luther staring intently at Henry VIII staring intently at us [TLC, Jan. 19] troubles me. As a Roman Catholic ecumenist, I rejoice in the substantial breakthrough that the Episcopal/Lutheran Concordat of Agreement will represent. (One authentic movement forward eventually benefits all the dialogues, many of us believe.) And it seems evident that Luther can legitimately represent Lutheranism on a cover featuring the encounter of the two churches. But can Henry VIII adequately represent Anglicanism?

To put it analogically, is Henry to Anglicanism what Luther is to Lutheranism? I was always taught, in my Anglican days, that such a claim was offensively anti-Anglican and revealed ignorance of its history and ecclesiology. Perhaps one shouldn't make too much of a magazine cover, but symbols have their power - often greater than words - and also their implicit theology.

Our Anglican/Roman Catholic ecumenical group, the fellowship of St. Gregory and St. Augustine, represents the Anglican Communion with the figure of the great saint and first Archbishop of Canterbury. That has problems - we know that Christianity predated the St. Augustine mission by centuries. But St. Augustine does seem a more adequate representation of Anglicanism than Henry VIII. The ecclesiological implications are not minor.

(The Very Rev.) Robert Hale, O.S.B. Cam. New Camaldoli Hermitage Big Sur, Calif.