The ivory handle of a crozier used by St Pope Gregory I will go on display at Canterbury Cathedral this weekend. The staff, used by the pope who helped to establish Christianity in England during the 6th century, was flown from Rome to the cathedral a week ago under tight security restrictions. It arrived just as 38 Anglican Primates gathered in the cathedral town for a meeting of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Church of England officials said the relic was a gesture of support for the meeting. Pope Gregory appointed St Augustine of Canterbury, then the prior of a monastery in Rome, to lead a mission to evangelise Britain in 595. Dr Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, said: “We are very pleased to receive the crozier as a symbol of ecumenical encouragement at this time of the meeting of Anglican Primates, and as a link with St Gregory whose vision of the conversion of England caused Augustine to found the community at Canterbury.” Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, who authorised the loan, said the “highly symbolic” relic, venerated by Anglicans, was a “mark of the bond that spiritually unites the Catholic and Anglican churches”. The loan of the relic, insured at £250,000, was organised by Fr Robert McCulloch, an Australian Catholic priest involved in the Vatican’s cricket team, and the Rev Marcus Walker, director of the Anglican Centre in Rome. Mr Walker told the Times newspaper: “The insurers have insisted that the box has its own seat in business class.”