they expressed the desire to spread this spirituality among Lutherans. In 2008, in his tribute to Chiara, the General Secretary of the World Lutheran Federation (LWF), Rev. Dr. Ishmael Noko, said: “Many in the Lutheran communion have drawn inspiration from this laywoman”. In 1966, in London, Chiara had an audience with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Michael Ramsey, Primate of the Anglican Communion, and subsequently with his successors. The former Archdeacon of Canterbury, Bernard Pawley, once described the Focolare as having “burst forth in the Church like a fountain of living water from the Gospel.” From 1967 to 1972, she traveled to Istanbul eight times, where she engaged in a deep fraternal dialogue with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras I, with whom she had 24 audiences over the years. This dialogue continued with his successors, DemetriosI and Bartholomew I. Chiara also formed a deep and lasting friendship with Frère Roger Schutz, founder of the ecumenical community of Taizé. Since 1967, she had contacts with the Ecumenical Council of Churches based in Geneva, Switzerland. Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, General Secretary of WCC in 2008, wrote in testimony of Chiara's life: “Chiara Lubich had a profound impact on the ecumenical movement and helped significantly to foster viable relationships between churches of different Christian traditions. (…) Our love for Chiara and immense gratitude for the gift of God she has been to the ecumenical movement will continue to motivate and inspire us in our work for the visible unity of the Church”. In all of these contacts, Chiara referred her activities to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, where she received full support. She also felt confirmed in this work by all the modern Popes, beginning with Pope John XXIII who had placed Christian unity as one of the first goals for the Second Vatican Council. Communion with Catholic ecclesial movements and new communities On the eve of Pentecost 1998, in St. Peter's Square in Rome, Pope John Paul II held the first large meeting of ecclesial movements and new communities, with the presence of 250,000 people from many nations of the world. In his address, he said: “The institutional and charismatic aspects are co-essential in the Church’s constitution. They contribute, although differently, to the life, renewal, and sanctification of God’s People. It is from this providential rediscovery of the Church’s charismatic dimension that, before and after the Council, a remarkable