A joy and privilege to be received by the Pope, says Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury has praised the Pope for speaking out against injustice and about hope; has commended working together for the common good; and has endorsed the strengthening power of common witness, in an address after a recent private meeting at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.
She prayed with Pope Leo and said: “It is a joy and a privilege to be received by you, together with this delegation from Lambeth Palace.”
She said: “Your Holiness, you have spoken powerfully about the many injustices in our world today, but you have spoken even more powerfully about hope. The world needed this message at this time — thank you. It reminded us that, despite our sufferings, people long for life in all its fullness, and countless people are working each day for this vision of the common good.”
She continued: “May we continue to work together in that hope, trusting that the one who has begun this good work among us will bring it to completion. Please be assured of a warm welcome for the Church of England should you honour the United Kingdom with a visit.”
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Archbishop of Canterbury ‘appalled’ by rise in anti-Semitism across UK
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that she is “appalled” by the growing aggression against Jewish communities in the UK, after a series of anti-Semitic attacks in London, including an arson incident, in Harrow, and a stabbing of two men in Golders Green.
“An attack on Jewish people is an attack on us all — we must stand together against the virulence of antisemitism that brings only violence, fear and hatred,” Archbishop Mullally wrote on X. “We must face this challenge together across society and within all our communities. I want to assure the Jewish community of my wholehearted support, solidarity and prayers.”
The Archbishop’s social media post came after bishops in London also expressed their “solidarity” with the Jewish community, saying that they “condemn unequivocally” the “abhorrent” incidents.
They were recently joined by the Bishops of Chelmsford, Gloucester, Southwark and Norwich in condemning the current rise of anti-Semitism in Britain.
Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (HAYI), an Islamist militant group, was reported to have said that it was behind several of the attacks.
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Strategic investment making a ‘significant difference’ to ministry and mission in parishes
National funding for mission is making a ‘significant difference’ in churches across the country, including urban and rural parishes and those in areas of deprivation, according to a recently published report.
The Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB) distributed £98m to dioceses and £5.9m to mission partners last year to ‘revitalise’ parish churches, which includes funding for ministry, children’s and youth work and operational roles in parishes, as well as the renovation of church buildings to accommodate growing mission.
The funding will also support work with churches to launch new worshipping communities, engage with children and young people in different ways, and help people grow in their faith. 6,000 leaders are expected to be trained through the new programmes, including around 100 additional curates.
The plans include revitalising churches in post-industrial areas, such as in Doncaster, Carlisle, Luton, the Medway Towns, Barking and Birmingham. They also involve rural Cumbria and Dorset, and along the Diocese of Chichester’s southern coastline.
In total to date, programmes supported by national funding for strategic investment have reported training 7,600 new leaders, launching 1,500 new worshipping communities and welcoming 46,000 new participants into the life of the Church.
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Assisted dying: Proper scrutiny was ‘moral necessity’, says bishop as bill falls
Adequate scrutiny of the assisted dying Bill before Parliament was a “moral necessity” and not just a “procedural detail”, the Bishop of Newcastle said recently, as the proposed legislation ran out of time in the House of Lords.
Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley, said the more closely the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill had been examined, the more concerns came into focus, not fewer, as she spoke in the final day of the Bill in the House of Lords.
“In our context, where questions of life, death, care and conscience are so closely intertwined, the quality of our scrutiny is not a procedural detail—it is a moral necessity,” Bishop Helen-Ann, who was a member of a Select Committee that examined the Bill – told Peers.
“Some may dismiss my contribution as one which is grounded in a faith, but this is as legitimate and significant as any other viewpoint – grounded in faith, belief or none.
“Whilst my faith informs my alarm at our designation of dignity or the lack of it, it is from my experience on the Select Committee, that I have found that the more closely we have examined this Bill, the more concerns have come into focus, not fewer.
“For a Bill of this magnitude in terms of societal change, the highest level of scrutiny is imperative.”
The Private Member’s Bill would have allowed someone with a terminal diagnosis and six months or less to live to be provided with drugs to end their life if they had capacity and met the eligibility criteria.
It has been going through Parliament for the past year and a half, but ran out of time before the current session of Parliament came to an end.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, speaking briefly in the debate, emphasised the shared wish of both opponents and proponents of the Bill that those who are terminally ill should be treated with compassion and be able to die in a pain-free and dignified way. She paid tribute to the ‘enormous’ amount of work that had gone into the Committee Stage of the Bill.
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New series of films marks contribution of self-supporting ministers
The Church of England’s ‘gifted, talented and brilliant’ self-supporting ministers are celebrated in a series of films recently published, ahead of Vocations Sunday.
A hairdresser, a data consultant, a solicitor and a teacher, all of whom are priests, speak about their dual vocations in the secular workplace and in churches.
The Bishop of Birkenhead, Julie Conalty, the lead bishop for the Church of England’s more than 2,000 self-supporting ministers, also features in the films. She speaks about the distinctive nature of the role and the gifts these ministers bring to workplaces and church congregations.
A former probation officer, she was a self-supporting minister over more than a decade, in the probation service and subsequently for the Youth Justice Board, a national charity and a local authority.
“I see how many gifted, talented and brilliant self-supporting ordained ministers that we have around the church, some of them are associates helping out around parishes, some are running parishes as the vicar or as the incumbent, some work in chaplaincy – they do all sorts of things,” she said.
She added: “I can think of self-supporting ordained ministers who are vets, or teaching assistants or doctors, and their professional and work experience brings something distinctive to their ministry.”
The Revd Anthea Mitchell, a hairdresser who is a part-time priest in charge at St Andrew’s Church in Barming Heath, Maidstone, Kent, said: “I run services, I do baptisms and I take funerals and weddings, and I run a community café – all the things you would expect a vicar to do.
“I suppose the longest part of my ministry, in terms of the time I spend, is at work, in the business. I go to work to cut people’s hair and I do wear my collar.
“I can honestly say that I have more deeply spiritual conversations when people are sitting in my chair, than I ever do in church.”
The Revd Henry Akingbemisilu, a data consultant and a self-supporting minister at St Paul’s Church, Thamesmead in southeast London, who also works as a Forces chaplain, said his professional training as a data consultant has taught him how to analyse and explain complex situations simply. “It helps me to discern people and identify where there is a problem,” he said.
He added: “The church is looking for people who live their faith in the ordinary life”.
The Revd Rebecca Lloyd, a solicitor in Warrington and a hospital chaplain, also helps her local church, St James, Great Sankey, with ministry and conducts baptisms, weddings and funerals. She said: “As a self-supporting minister, it’s great, I get to be a blessing to the local church. On a general week I will help with Sunday ministry, with cell groups, school ministry. All the bits of the life of the church – I get involved as much as I want to. I will cover funerals, and baptisms and weddings, all across the town.”
The Revd Canon Lyndon Bannon, who works in the senior leadership of an Academy in the Wirral, and is an associate priest at Christ Church, Willaston, said: “I believe that I am called to work in school – I also believe that I am called to be a priest in church. Having that dual role helps me to understand the society in which we live in a broader and deeper way.”
Watch the full series here: Self-Supporting Ministry Stories | YouTube
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‘Called to One Hope’: Anglican Consultative Council to meet in Belfast in June and July
Gathering Anglicans from around the world, the 19th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC-19) will take place in Belfast from 27th June to 5th July 2026.
Themed ‘Called to One Hope’ from the letter to the Ephesians, this important international gathering of Anglican bishops, clergy and laity will explore how the Church can share the reconciling love of Christ in a fragmented world. ?
Supported by the Anglican Communion Office and hosted by the Church of Ireland, ACC-19 will also be the first official Anglican Communion meeting attended by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd and Rt Hon Sarah Mullally DBE.?
Meeting every three years, the Anglican Consultative Council is one of four ‘Instruments of Communion’, alongside the Lambeth Conference, Primates’ Meeting, and Archbishop of Canterbury. Every member church is entitled to send up to three representatives, which include both clergy and lay people, as well as bishops. The last ACC met in Ghana, in 2023.