Catholic and Protestant leaders have stressed their mutual bonds 500 years after the start of the Reformation, a movement that tore apart western Christianity and sparked a string of bloody religious wars in Europe lasting more than a century.

A service in Westminster Abbey on Tuesday marked the anniversary of the date in 1517 on which the German theologian Martin Luther submitted The 95 Theses to the archbishop of Mainz, as well as nailing a copy to the door of a church in Wittenberg, lighting the fuse of the Reformation.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, presented a text by the Anglican communion affirming a joint declaration by the Roman Catholic church and global Protestant bodies, described as “a sign of healing after 500 years of division”.