The Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, was among the speakers who last week expressed further doubts over the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill when it was debated in the House of Lords.

Bishop Chessun raised the prospect of “pressure on all sorts of ancillary staff” who could be “co-opted, either directly or indirectly, into what becomes the final procedure, when the conscience of such an ancillary participant tells them that they should have nothing to do with such a procedure”.

The Bishop pointed out that, when it comes to assisted dying, “matters of acute conscience are not restricted to the immediate preparation of a lethal dosage or the medical oversight of the procedure.”

He went on to ask: “Is it right that they should face sanction or inhibition of their careers, or even dismissal? I suggest not.”

Read it all.

The Bishop of #Southwark, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, was among the speakers who last week expressed further doubts over the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill when it was debated in the #HouseofLords ⚖️#Assisteddying #churchhouse #churchnews https://t.co/F3cCOzkoxB

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 31, 2026

But why does God care who we sleep with? Let me give you three reasons

1. He cares because he created us

To understand the purpose and limits of sex, we have to refer to the creator of sex: 

God himself. Yes, as one writer puts it, “sex was God’s idea, not ours. It’s not something we discovered behind God’s back…. His first command to humanity in the Bible involves and necessitates sex!” Genesis 1:28: “Be fruitful and multiply!” So, if you are married, have sex and feel free to have it often!

2. He cares because he loves us

God is all about love. He love us, and he longs for us to love him too. We’re designed to live lives of love. Ultimate reality isn’t grounded in cold submission to an authoritarian deity but in heartfelt response to the God who wants his universe pulsating with love. God cares who we sleep with because he cares that we really do love each other well, and that might mean loving in a different way to how we feel. Christopher Yuan, author of the excellent,

“Holy Sexuality and the Gospel”, (and a man who wrestles with same-sex attraction but who’s chosen the biblical call to chastity), puts it this way,  “Human emotions can’t be the determining factor for any gift from God.” No,  Jeremiah 17:9 says: “the heart is deceitful above all things”. And as Ashley Null says, summarizing the theology of Anglican reformer Thomas Cranmer, “What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.” So be careful when people say “Listen to your heart.”

Yes, sex matters to God because people do. He cares because misusing sex can cause profound hurt and damage. He cares because He regards us as worthy of His care. 

And, in fact, that care is not only seen in telling us how we should use sex, but also in how He makes forgiveness and healing available to us when we mess this up.

3. He knows what’s best for us

This is a hard one for many of us to accept. But, Jesus is for you, and even his difficult directives are for your good….

Read it all.

A young Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross on the set of The Legacy in 1978, the film where they met and fell in love. They've been together ever since. pic.twitter.com/y84yc97LhM

— History Defined (@historydefined) September 21, 2025

In a statement suggesting the enormity of Canterbury’s failure to be a focus for unity, the former archbishop Rowan Williams recently admitted: “I honestly don’t know whether the communion will survive.” Such a statement from a former leader of the Church of England reflects the gravity of the current crisis. It is not merely a matter of internal disagreement but a question about the very future of Anglicanism.

A significant turning point came in 2023 when the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) issued what became known as the Ash Wednesday Statement. In this declaration, the GSFA announced that it would no longer recognize the archbishop of Canterbury as primus inter pares and the head of the Anglican Communion. This decision marked a historic shift: The symbolic center of Anglican unity was effectively withdrawn by churches representing the majority of Anglicans worldwide.

The roots of this shift are not only historical but also theological and structural. The traditional configuration of the Anglican Communion emerged during the era of the British Empire. During that time, the Church of England functioned naturally as a coordinating center for Anglican churches established through missionary and colonial expansion. However, the global context has changed dramatically. The demographic center of Anglicanism has moved decisively to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Today, the vast majority of Anglicans live in what is commonly called the Global South.

The departure of several western provinces from the traditional Anglican faith inevitably raises questions about unity, governance, and authority.

Read it all.

Canterbury and the Collapse of Anglican Unity
by Mouneer Anis @bishopmouneer https://t.co/5oNTQIwrz3 pic.twitter.com/LVjAFzbJjP

— First Things (@firstthingsmag) March 31, 2026

The next Suffragan Bishop of Warrington, in the diocese of Liverpool, is to be the Dean of Truro, the Very Revd Simon Robinson, Downing Street announced on Friday.

He succeeds the Rt Revd Beverley Mason, who resigned last year (News, 4 September, 2025).

Dean Robinson was ordained in 2012 after graduating from Warwick University and studying for ordination on the Southern Theological Education and Training Scheme. He has served as Dean of Truro since January 2024, having previously become Interim Dean in October 2022.

Before moving to Truro, Dean Robinson was the Vicar of Minehead, after a curacy in Freshford, Limpley Stoke and Hinton Charterhouse, near Bath.

Before ordination, Dean Robinson worked for 24 years in education. He was a head teacher in London, before leading the amalgamation of three schools into a single, all-year-round provision in Bristol.

Read it all.

"I know he will be a gift to us here within the diocese and the Merseyside region as we seek God’s best for our future life together in mission and ministry."

The Dean of Truro, the Very Rev Simon Robinson, is to be the Bishop of Warrington.

Read more: https://t.co/G6jufHLs1R.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) March 27, 2026

The Anglican Church in North America has chosen to retain Lathrop GPM to conduct a restricted and nontransparent review of the Title IV proceedings surrounding Bishop Stewart Ruch, and in that choice the truth of the matter is already disclosed, not at the end of the process but at its beginning. The terms will not be released. The findings are not promised to the light. The scope has been drawn with a care that ensures the most decisive questions will never quite arrive where they must be answered. One need not wait for conclusions. The arrangement itself speaks with sufficient clarity.

What presents itself as sober inquiry carries the unmistakable grammar of preemption. There will be interviews, reports, careful language, and the appearance of discipline, yet all of it unfolds within limits that have already been secured against the possibility that the truth might actually do what truth does, which is to judge, to expose, and to reorder. The structure is not neutral. It is already an answer. It ensures that whatever is said will be said in a way that does not require the institution to become something other than what it presently is.

The choice of Lathrop GPM makes this plain in a way that no further argument can improve. A firm known for defending institutions against claims of abuse has been entrusted with examining an institution under precisely such a shadow. One might search for a more transparent declaration of intent and fail to find it. This is not a tension to be resolved. It is a coherence to be recognized. The task is not to discover a truth that might unsettle the body under examination but to render events intelligible within a horizon that preserves that body’s continuity. While the conclusion has not been written in detail, its boundaries have been drawn with precision.

Even the most modest traditions of law would find this intolerable. The idea that judgment must be free from the control of those who stand to be implicated is not an advanced refinement. It is the bare minimum required for justice to exist at all. 

Read it all.

Re: Ruch trial aftermath: The Ex. Committee has appointed a subcommittee to "oversee a third-party review of the provincial administration" of the Ruch matter. They have not yet determined the scope of the review but will "retain a qualified firm or individual to complete it." pic.twitter.com/U1CXTUnENM

— Arlie Coles (@ArlieColes) January 17, 2026

The province’s intent to exclude the trial court’s processes from the coming review represents a source of “deep concerns” for the Anglicans for Truth, Renewal, and Accountability (ATRA), a grassroots group formed in 2025. A December open letter issued by ATRA, which gathered over 200 clergy and lay signatures, called for an independent post-trial review with a clear scope and a promise of eventual publication.

In a March 25 statement, ATRA echoed the Diocese of South Carolina in calling for the Executive Committee to publish its contract with Lathrop GPM “to answer some important remaining questions.”

“Who will have control over the final report? Will the final report be made public? Does the firm hired have a fiduciary duty to the Province, meaning ‘a legal duty to act solely in another party’s interests,’ which constrains the firm’s ability to pursue truth independently? Who will have access to and control over the information gathered by the firm?” the ATRA statement asked.

According to Harris, the province intends to publicize the findings of the report, though has not determined in what format. It does not intend to publish its contract with Lathrop.

ACNAtoo, the advocacy group formed in 2021 in response to allegations of abuse in Bishop Ruch’s diocese, criticized the denomination’s choice of Lathrop to conduct the review. The group called Lathrop’s participation “inappropriate” in light of the firm’s “deficiencies” in investigating sexual misconduct allegations against Mike Bickle, former leader of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City; its legal defense of Roman Catholic bishops and dioceses in civil sexual assault cases; and its use of “scorched earth” tactics against victims described by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Roes, VandeHei, and Price also stated concern to TLC regarding Lathrop’s “track record of defending religious institutions in sexual abuse lawsuits,” and expressed a desire for those overseeing the post-trial review to work to earn the confidence of the church’s members.

Read it all.

New for @Livng_Church: Lathrop will review the process that ended in a controversial acquittal of Bp Stewart Ruch, but the court record of the ACNA's chaotic trial will remain under wraps.https://t.co/kFRSWZZjbx

— Arlie Coles (@ArlieColes) March 27, 2026

What does the reordering of the Anglican Communion actually mean for Christians in the Australian Church? 

Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel on what it means for Anglican churches, clergy and church members in Australia.

We explore what ‘principled disengagement’ from the Canterbury Instruments will mean for Australian leaders and other Global Anglican Communion leaders. 

Plus an update on implementing the Sydney Diocean goal of seeing five percent saved through conversion growth each year.  

And Archbishop Raffel responds to criticism over his comments on Pauline Hanson, ‘We must reject hateful words and threats of violence.’ 

Watch it all.

Six months after the announcement in Canterbury Cathedral that the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, had been nominated as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury (News, 10 October 2025), the new Primate returned to the city to be installed in her new cathedral.

Although her election was confirmed in January (News, 30 January), the enthronement on Wednesday marks the symbolic start of her public ministry. She makes history as the first woman to hold the position in 1400 years.

The Archbishop had arrived on foot in Canterbury as a pilgrim on Sunday, six days after setting out from St Paul’s Cathedral with her husband, Eamonn, and a small party of supporters. On Sunday, about 100 people joined her on the outskirts of the city for the last part of the journey to her cathedral, where she was greeted by the Mayor, the Dean, and the Bishop of Dover. Dressed informally in walking clothes and boots, she pronounced herself “relieved” to have completed the 87-mile journey, telling the BBC: “It’s been a real joy. It’s also a joy to know that we’re done.”

The service on Wednesday — attended by more than 2000 people — was an altogether more formal occasion, full of pomp and pageantry

Read it all.

Dame Sarah Mullally is to be installed as the first ever female leader of the Church of England at Canterbury Cathedral.

More here: https://t.co/Lys2LnMGBY pic.twitter.com/LhEOtve4KJ

— BBC Kent (@BBCRadioKent) March 25, 2026

It takes a certain colonial arrogance to refuse to acknowledge the real reasons people give for their actions. And after three decades, it is perhaps that arrogance, which has led both the GSFA and Gafcon to believe there needs to be significant change in the leadership of the Anglican Communion. It is true that at the moment they are divided over the best way forward – GSFA are holding out the Cairo Covenant, while Gafcon look to the Jerusalem Declaration and have announced the formation of a Global Anglican Council, to replace the Instruments of Communion. What both are agreed on, however, is that the future of the Anglican Communion must be confessional rather than institutional. In other words, what provinces believe about the word of God and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is of far greater import than historic relationships.

How this all works out in the future has yet to be seen, but what today’s events have shown is that the leaders of the majority of the world’s Anglicans are not just talking a good game. Instead, by their words and their actions, they have made it crystal clear that they are united in rejecting the moral and spiritual leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Read it all.

Reflections on the ABC's installation range from the ecstatic to the downright rude. Why is everyone ignoring the fact that the primates of a 1/4 of provinces refused to attend? This is not personal but it is important. https://t.co/8RhXHCU8Iq

— Anglican Futures (@AnglicanFutures) March 26, 2026

So many ways we could choose to begin. So I just put two sets of things up on the board in terms of getting your juices flowing. So we’re in Mark, we’re in the early part of Mark, in and around Nazareth Capernaum area, and we’re building a picture of Jesus.

He’s done a lot of healings and a lot of miracles in various settings. He’s been preaching. And then in Chapter 4, he does all this teaching of the parables of the kingdom.

And then when we get to the end of Chapter 4, we get this building picture of the fullness of who Jesus is. You have the stilling of the storm, the Gerasne demoniac at the beginning of Chapter 5, and then at the end of Chapter 5, you get this very interesting double dynamic. It’s two stories, but they’re woven into one, because Jairus’ daughter is sick, and he comes to Jesus and says, my dear little duaghter is sick.”

“And then while he’s on the way to Jairus’ house, this woman who has this issue of blood touches his garment. And then while he’s doing that, Jairus’ daughter dies. So at the end of the chapter, he raises Jairus’ daughter.

So if you’re following, this is stilling the storm, Lord of the deep. This is the Gerstein demoniac, Lord of demons. This is the woman with the issue of blood, Lord of disease. And this is finally Jairus’ daughter, Lord of death. And this is all very deliberate on Mark’s part. He’s trying to give you a sense of the greatness of the one with whom he had to do….”

“So we have a problem, which is we can’t conceive of what a perfect person would be like. But when you meet a perfect person, which is what Jesus actually is, and he’s the only one that ever is, no surprise, they don’t fit neatly into any box that you try to put them in. It’s not what you expect.

It’s not the way that you would think it would go. There’s all sorts of aspects of Christ’s character that are always bursting the bubble of the people that are around him. He’s full of wonder. He’s full of power. He’s full of compassion. He’s got all these characteristics.

But the one thing that you have to say is this is not a made up story. You could never imagine anybody like this. And I’ve given you this before, but Mark 7 is one of my favorites, which is he has done all things well, which is what you would expect to be said about a perfect person.But you have to think about the magnitude of what that actually means when you’re talking about Jesus, because he’s got three years of public ministry. And think about all the things that he’s done in every situation. That means when he’s in front of Caiaphas, he does that well.When he’s in front of Pilate, he does that well. When he’s feeding to 5,000, he does that well. So here he is with the Gerasene Demoniac.

We’re in the second of these four incidents, which are really manifestations of the power of Christ. So this is all about Christ’s power. Power over nature, power over the demonic, power over sickness, and therefore the Lord of Health, and power over death.”


“And Jesus’s power is getting bigger and bigger as the passage is moving on. Now, what we, so I want you to turn to the actual Gerasene Demoniac, which is what we had last time. So the first thing is just to get back into the story and remind ourselves of the degree of the transformation that we’re dealing with.

So what I want you to do, you already know the story because we dealt with it in some detail last time, but I want you to remember that this guy is described as a raving lunatic, somebody who’s gashing himself, somebody who has supernatural power, somebody that nobody in the town wants anything to do with. He’s like a giant dark ogre that kind of lives in the spectral world of this horrible graveyard. And you start to add up all the things that you know about this guy.

He’s writhing, he’s got supernatural strength, he cries out day and night, he lives in a graveyard. If you had any one of those characteristics true of you, we’d probably think of sending you for mental help at a minimum, possibly to a mental hospital very quickly….

You may listen directly here:

Or you may download it there.

And demons also came out from many, shouting, “You are the Son of God.” LK 4:38-44
Mosaic of the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac from the Basilica Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, 6th cent. pic.twitter.com/TMN2kpQjfA

— SaintsandScripture (@Saint_of_theDay) September 4, 2024

The ADOSC initially proposed sending three Standing Committee members and the Dean of the Province (also serving as Chancellor) to meet with three ACNA representatives. The diocese subsequently clarified, however, that it would meet only with its full Standing Committee present and with no promise of confidentiality, given that its sole purpose is to bring transparency to the province’s process of justice.

The ACNA Executive Committee responded by proposing that a delegation visit the ADOSC instead. Bishop Edgar and the Standing Committee declined that offer. The Executive Committee then invited Bishop Edgar to attend their next regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 21.

The Executive Committee further stated that it would not revisit the outcome of the Ruch trial, re-examine the merits of the charges, or assess the internal processes or rulings of the Court for the Trial of a Bishop or any other judicial body.

In his response, Edgar wrote: “Lack of trust and mutual suspicion erode our communion and weaken our witness to a watching world. But our communion and witness are strengthened by a commitment to transparency and truth that is above reproach.

“We therefore urge you to join us in seeking clarity and truth in these matters, and to work diligently alongside us so that, together, we may pursue reconciliation, restore confidence, and ensure that God is glorified in all we say and do as a Province.”

Read it all.

South Carolina Bishop Chip Edgar’s Diocesan Convention address–'after five years, a verdict was reached in the trial of Bp Ruch, (Diocese of the Upper Midwest). Our diocese was drawn into that fray last summer, and again in December when verdict was issued, as one of our own,… pic.twitter.com/zQKnUkz3al

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) March 20, 2026

Please read it all carefully and follow all linked documents–KSH. You may find the current list of all the current Standing Committee members there.

Anglican Diocese of South Carolina Gathers in Myrtle Beach for 2026 Convention; “Becoming Mature in Christ”–Bishop Chip Edgar stressed the importance of intentional Christian formation in both his sermon and his address during the 2026 Convention of the Anglican Diocese of South… pic.twitter.com/In4eeLdbDy

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) March 20, 2026

St. John-Holy Trinity Impacts Friends in the DRC

In this brief video, created by New Wineskins for Global Missions, the Rev. Bisoke Balikenga of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, shares the story of Hearts for the Congo, a ministry that grew out of a chance connection at the New Wineskins Conference and a friendship with Julia Marshall of St. John-Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Charleston, SC.

Read it all.

And so his question to all those who have the freedom to speak in the Church and for the Church is ‘who do you really speak for?’ But if we take seriously the underlying theme of his words and witness, that question is also, ‘who do you really feel with?’ Are you immersed in the real life of the Body, or is your life in Christ seen only as having the same sentiments as the powerful? Sentir con la Iglesia in the sense in which the mature Romero learned those words is what will teach you how to speak on behalf of the Body. And we must make no mistake about what this can entail: Romero knew that this kind of ‘feeling with the Church’ could only mean taking risks with and for the Body of Christ – so that, as he later put it, in words that are still shocking and sobering, it would be ‘sad’ if priests in such a context were not being killed alongside their flock. As of course they were in El Salvador, again and again in those nightmare years.

But he never suggests that speaking on behalf of the Body is the responsibility of a spiritual elite. He never dramatised the role of the priest so as to play down the responsibility of the people. If every priest and bishop were silenced, he said, ‘each of you will have to be God’s microphone. Each of you will have to be a messenger, a prophet. The Church will always exist as long as even one baptized person is alive.’ Each part of the Body, because it shares the sufferings of the whole – and the hope and radiance of the whole – has authority to speak out of that common life in the crucified and risen Jesus.

So Romero’s question and challenge is addressed to all of us, not only those who have the privilege of some sort of public megaphone for their voices. The Church is maintained in truth; and the whole Church has to be a community where truth is told about the abuses of power and the cries of the vulnerable. Once again, if we are serious about sentir con la Iglesia, we ask not only who we are speaking for but whose voice still needs to be heard, in the Church and in society at large. The questions here are as grave as they were thirty years ago. In Salvador itself, the methods of repression familiar in Romero’s day were still common until very recently. We can at least celebrate the fact that the present head of state there has not only apologized for government collusion in Romero’s murder but has also spoken boldly on behalf of those whose environment and livelihood are threatened by the rapacity of the mining companies, who are set on a new round of exploitation in Salvador and whose critics have been abducted and butchered just as so many were three decades back. The skies are not clear: our own Anglican bishop in Salvador was attacked ten days ago by unknown enemies; but the signs of hope are there, and the will to defend the poor and heal the wounds.

Read it all.

24 Mar 1980: the assassination #otd of St Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador (Arzobispado de San Salvador) pic.twitter.com/90WK8a78KK

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) March 24, 2026

The next Area Bishop of Stepney, in the diocese of London, is to be the Archdeacon of Llandaff, the Ven. Rod Green, Downing Street announced on Friday.

He succeeds Dr Joanne Grenfell, who was translated to St Edmundsbury & Ipswich last year (News, 4 July 2025).

Archdeacon Green became Associate Rector at St Paul’s, Shadwell, in the Stepney Area of London diocese, in 2011. He was appointed Vicar of St Peter’s, West Harrow, in the Willesden Area, in 2014. He has been Archdeacon of Llandaff since 2021.

Archdeacon Green trained for ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He served his title at Christ Church, Spitalfields, in the Stepney Area, and was ordained priest in 2008.

Read it all.

“I have deep biological roots in the area. My dad grew up in Stepney. His first job was at the old post office in Islington. My children were born here. My wife already works in Canary Wharf. I have deep spiritual roots here, too."#BishopofStepneyhttps://t.co/jrKOFxPXhw

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 21, 2026

Almighty God, who didst give to thy servant Thomas Ken grace and courage to bear witness to the truth before rulers and kings: Give us also thy strength that, following his example, we may constantly defend what is right, boldly reprove what is evil, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and ever.

12 Feb 1689: Having refused to swear allegiance to William III & Mary II, Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath & Wells leaves the House of Lords – never to return (New College, University of Oxford) pic.twitter.com/do58IRHMIq

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) February 12, 2025

First, after five years, a verdict was reached in the trial of Bp Ruch, (Diocese of the Upper Midwest). Our diocese was drawn into that fray last summer, and again in December when verdict was issued, as one of our own, Mr. Alan Runyan, both a hero to us and a godly man, was unfairly denigrated during the proceedings and then again in the final, 71-page verdict.

Having called for an independent audit of all the matters related to the trial, including the trial proceedings themselves, our Standing Committee was compelled to raise concerns with the verdict (to be clear, not with the ruling, we know that is not in our purview) to ensure that these proceedings be included in the audit.

I’m pleased to report that, so far, the ACNA’s executive committee has responded to us largely positively and I am hopeful. We’ll know more from them in the coming week, and we’ll be reporting to you as of March 23rd, or a day or two after.

Throughout all of that, our goal has been that given we have upcoming prominent cases before the province, one including the Archbishop himself, this audit we’ve called for would be able to help restore some confidence that regardless of the outcome of those future trials, they’ll be handled appropriately.

Again, this case matters much to us as a diocese as it involves several of us who are members of the diocese who are involved in these legal proceedings. We want to do what we can as a diocese to try to ensure a fair outcome without crossing the line and tampering with that outcome.

Now, throughout all of this, I’ve heard people say from time to time they’re tired of being asked to “trust the process” when they feel that the process has already been pretty bad and let them down. I just want to say to you all, I do not ask you to trust the process. I ask you to trust the Lord of the process and the Lord of all processes. Even as this works out, knowing that his promise is true, that all things, including mishandled church processes, will under his strong and end up for the good, the true, and the just. Even if we must wait until all things are made new and everything sad is going to come out untrue.

Read it all.

South Carolina Bishop Chip Edgar’s Diocesan Convention address–'after five years, a verdict was reached in the trial of Bp Ruch, (Diocese of the Upper Midwest). Our diocese was drawn into that fray last summer, and again in December when verdict was issued, as one of our own,… pic.twitter.com/zQKnUkz3al

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) March 20, 2026

Bishop Chip Edgar stressed the importance of intentional Christian formation in both his sermon and his address during the 2026 Convention of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina, which was held March 13-14, in Myrtle Beach. The theme of the gathering was “Becoming Fully Mature in Christ.”  Hosted by Trinity Church and conducted at both the church, and the Marina Inn, the convention brought together more than 350 clergy and delegates from across the coastal and eastern parts of the state to hear from the Bishop, receive updates from various ministries, approve the budget, and elect individuals to serve in various offices….

Read it all and please note that you can view videos, read talks, and access other documents shared at the convention by visiting the convention resources page. 

Anglican Diocese of South Carolina Gathers in Myrtle Beach for 2026 Convention; “Becoming Mature in Christ”–Bishop Chip Edgar stressed the importance of intentional Christian formation in both his sermon and his address during the 2026 Convention of the Anglican Diocese of South… pic.twitter.com/In4eeLdbDy

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) March 20, 2026

The next Bishop of St Albans is to be Dr Andrew Rumsey, who has been the Area Bishop of Ramsbury, in the diocese of Salisbury, since 2019, Downing Street announced on Thursday.

He succeeds Dr Alan Smith, who retired last May (News, 10 January 2025).

Dr Rumsey was born, baptised, and grew up in the diocese, where his father served as a parish priest. He was educated at Reading University and King’s College, London, where he completed his Doctor of Theology and Ministry (D.Th.Min.) in 2016 with a thesis “What kind of place is the Anglican parish? A theological description”.

He trained for ministry at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, before his ordination as priest in 1998. He served his title at Holy Trinity and St Michael, Harrow, in London diocese, before parish ministry in Southwark diocese. He was Vicar of Christ Church, Gypsy Hill, from 2001 until his appointment as Rector (2011), then Team Rector (2014), of Oxted, where he served until his consecration as a bishop in 2019.

Dr Rumsey also serves as the Church’s lead bishop for church buildings. 

The next Bishop of St Albans is to be Dr Andrew Rumsey, who has been the Area Bishop of Ramsbury, in the diocese of Salisbury, since 2019, Downing Street announced on Thursday#stalbansdiocese #newbishop #bishopsappointments #churchnews #churchtimes https://t.co/Czv7JBKKHT

It is, Rowan Williams assures me, a coincidence that his new book will be published three days after the installation of Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury. “I will not be attending,” he says. “You don’t want to be Marley’s ghost.”

Yet, fittingly – since that book takes solidarity as its theme – this priest, poet and critic is keen to empathise with Mullally, the first female Archbishop, in the weight of challenges she faces. “Every archbishop starts, like every president or prime minister: with expectations being thrown at them,” he recalls of his time at Lambeth Palace from 2002 to 2012. “Realising you’re not going to be able to meet them is part of the job. It is no walk in the park.”

Williams, who now lives in Cardiff with his theologian wife Jane, comes across as gentler, kinder and more self-deprecating than I remember him from his episcopal tenure. He used to make regular headlines, his every utterance and act picked apart. His 2011 dismissal of David Cameron’s “Big Society” initiative as “painfully stale” had the Conservative benches in uproar. Today, as we sit talking in a book-lined reception room at his publisher’s London office, he stands out from the colourful backdrop in his black clerical shirt and trousers, with a simple cross hanging round his neck. Those monkish eyebrows remain as untamed as ever.

The two biggest issues in Mullally’s in-tray, Williams tells me, are the same ones he tried but failed to settle during his turbulent decade in post: women’s ordination and what he refers to as “the same-sex question”. With the first, he feels, at least in England, “some of the bitterness has gone out of it”. Not, though, in much of the 85-million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion, over which the Archbishop of Canterbury also presides, with some provinces muttering about schism. “I honestly don’t know whether the Communion will survive,” he says bluntly.

Read it all.

"Is he saying that British public life has lost its moral centre? “Yes,” he replies, boldly and without any caveat. “Increasingly, we permit and collude with dishonourable forms of behaviour, and we don’t seem very concerned about that.”" Rowan Williams: ‘I don’t know whether the…

— Mark Lambert (@sitsio) March 17, 2026

When the former Archbishop of Canterbury the Rt Revd Justin Welby spoke recently about his mental health (Quotes, 6 March), his honesty was striking.

Speaking to Gyles Brandreth on the podcast Rosebud, he reflected on the failures surrounding the Church of England’s handling of abuse allegations, and revealed that he had sought professional help. “I’ve been seeing a psychotherapist for a considerable period of time, and a psychiatrist: very helpful,” he said. He went on to say that therapy was not about excusing mistakes, but about confronting them honestly: “It’s not about saying, ‘Oh, it didn’t matter,’ . . . quite the reverse. How does one live with such a failure?”

That candour should have been welcomed. Instead, it prompted a deeply damaging column in The Daily Telegraph by Celia Walden, who asked: “What’s the point of God if even Justin Welby is seeing a therapist?”

Reading her article left me shocked, distressed, and very upset at such ignorance about mental health. I felt shamed and triggered. As a serving clergyman who has lived with serious mental-health challenges, I felt guilty and embarrassed simply for seeking help. Her column was extremely damaging, heartless, and cruel, and lacked any compassion for clergy and people of faith who live with mental illness. It implied that faith alone should replace therapy: a view that is both wrong and pastorally reckless.

Read it all.

"I have never told someone with cancer to refuse chemotherapy and to 'just pray'. I have never suggested that insulin betrays belief. So, why is mental health treated differently?" ✍️ Mark Edwards #mentalhealth #JustinWelby https://t.co/FTUYk6BqKd

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 13, 2026

A fleet of Currachs (longboats) weaved its way toward the shore, where a young Roman Brit and his family walked. His name was Patricius, the 16-year-old son of a civil magistrate and tax collector. He had heard stories of Irish raiders who captured slaves and took them “to the ends of the world,” and as he studied the longboats, he no doubt began imagining the worst.

With no Roman army to protect them (Roman legions had long since deserted Britain to protect Rome from barbarian invasions), Patricius and his town were unprepared for attack. The Irish warriors, wearing helmets and armed with spears, descended on the pebbled beach. The braying war horns struck terror into Patricius’s heart, and he started to run toward town.

The warriors quickly demolished the village, and as Patricius darted among burning houses and screaming women, he was caught. The barbarians dragged him aboard a boat bound for the east coast of Ireland.

Patricius, better known as Patrick, is remembered today as the saint who drove the snakes out of Ireland, the teacher who used the shamrock to explain the Trinity, and the namesake of annual parades in New York and Boston. What is less well-known is that Patrick was a humble missionary (this saint regularly referred to himself as “a sinner”) of enormous courage. When he evangelized Ireland, he set in motion a series of events that impacted all of Europe. It all started when he was carried off into slavery around 430.

Read it all.

#OTD March 17, 461:
(traditional date)
Patrick, missionary to Ireland and its patron saint, dies. Captured by Irish raiders as a youth, he was enslaved before escaping to Gaul (modern France). Years later, after a vision calling him to return, he preached the gospel to the Irish,… pic.twitter.com/E5lnojcL5d

— ☧ Today in Christian History (@HistoricalRook) March 17, 2026

Almighty God, who in thy providence didst choose thy servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of thee: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.

Today's the feast of St Patrick, 5th Century Romano-British missionary to Ireland. He stands with St George in glass by the Harry Clarke workshop, c1950 in Plymouth Cathedral. He's one of the patron saints of Ireland, particularly associated with the Irish diaspora. pic.twitter.com/Jn7sRLoPve

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) March 17, 2026

The question then becomes what status we should give to the acceptance of same-sex sexual relationships by some Anglican churches today.

In the words of C S Lewis, the traditional rule of the Christian Church with regard to sexual ethics has always been ‘either marriage, with complete faithfulness to your partner, or else total abstinence’[9] (marriage here means marriage between a man and a woman). This is the consensual teaching about marriage and sexual ethics that, as Vincent of Lerin puts it, has been held ‘always, everywhere and by everyone’[10] from biblical times onwards, in the same way that belief in the divinity of Christ and his bodily resurrection have been universally taught and accepted.

In the words of Darrin Belousek in his book Marriage, Scripture and the Church:

‘Scripture, consistently, presents a single picture of marriage and approves a single pattern of sexual relations: male- female union. Jesus summarizes this witness: ‘the two’ of ‘male and female’ joined into ‘one flesh.’ The Holy Spirit has woven this pattern of holy union throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, in the form, function, and figure of marriage. Tradition, East and West, also has consistently taught a single standard of sex and marriage: marriage is man-woman monogamy; all sex outside man-woman monogamy is sin. This doctrine has been taught always by the church, beginning with the apostles’ testimony to Jesus teaching; It has been proclaimed throughout the worldwide church, among all people in every place and epoch, as God’s will for sex and marriage; it has been articulated by apologetic writings and theological treatises, transmitted through baptismal catechesis and canonical discipline, celebrated in monastic vows and nuptial rites.’ [11]

Judged against this standard, the acceptance of same-sex sexual relationships (and even same-sex marriages) by some churches in the Anglican Communion has to be viewed as a ‘gross and grievous abomination,’ since it constitutes a departure from a key part of the Catholic and apostolic faith and an endorsement of sin. To put it plainly the churches involved have supported both heresy and immorality.

Furthermore, as the Church of England Evangelical Council report ‘Guarding the Deposit’ notes, the apostolic witness in the New Testament, which has also been accepted ‘everywhere at all times and by all,‘  teaches that:

‘…the Church should make a separation in this world between the people of God and those who practise sexual immorality (1 Cor 5: 1-13).

As Tom Wright notes, Paul teaches that the Church has the ‘God-given right and duty to discriminate between those who are living in the Messiah’s way and those who are not’.

Read it all.

Martin Davie–Assessing two different visions for the future of the Anglican Communion https://t.co/F3so2u4TtA 'The difference between the two views of the future of global Anglicanism put forward by the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals and The Abuja Affirmation is that the former holds… pic.twitter.com/LXTgMmiuOZ

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) March 16, 2026

The next Suffragan Bishop of St Germans, in the diocese of Truro, is to be the Revd James Treasure, Downing Street announced on Monday.

He succeeds the Rt Revd Hugh Nelson, who was translated to Worcester last year (News, 29 July 2025).

Mr Treasure became the Vicar of St Thomas and St Luke (known locally as “Top Church”), Dudley, in 2018, and has been Team Rector since 2023.

He trained at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, and was ordained priest in 2017. He served his title at St John the Baptist and Holy Innocents, Kidderminster, in Worcester diocese. He was previously “a leader in a free church” before his move back to the Church of England, the Truro statement said.

Read it all.

New Bishop of St Germans and Bodmin archdeacon https://t.co/XYWD9xMCO2

— BBC Cornwall (@BBCCornwall) March 10, 2026

We invite your prayers for our bishop, clergy, delegates, diocesan leaders, and staff as we travel to Myrtle Beach March 13 and 14 for the annual ADOSC Diocesan Convention. The event is being hosted by Trinity Church.

View the convention schedule, see who is standing for election, and read more here.

The latest Enewsletter from the #Anglican diocese of #SouthCarolina https://t.co/NSfiqsiLu1 #parishministry #lowcvountrylife #media #communication pic.twitter.com/YPA2kjdGuy

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) June 11, 2025

 Financial controls were dismantled, and trustees were “disempowered”, in Bangor diocese, a review of the situation over the five years before the previous Archbishop’s resignation has found.

The independent governance review of Bangor Diocesan Board of Finance (BDBF) and Bangor Diocesan Trust (BDT), published on Friday, was told by trustees that it had became apparent that “they should not challenge what was being done because it was already agreed, and dissent would not be appreciated.”

During the period studied — the five years leading up to the retirement as Bishop of Bangor and Archbishop of Wales of the Most Revd Andy John, in 2025 — several serious-incident reports were sent to the Charity Commission relating to Bangor Cathedral (News, 14 May 2025).

A Visitation and safeguarding audit heard about “weak financial controls” and was told that there was “no protection for those raising concerns” (News, 3 May 2025). Archbishop John announced his retirement in the wake of its publication, apologising for “errors of judgement” (News, 27 June 2025).

Read it all.

Financial controls were dismantled, and trustees were “disempowered”, in #Bangor diocese, a review of the situation over the five years before the previous Archbishop’s resignation has found#churchinwales #churchnews #churchtimes https://t.co/BrgXlgwQC6

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 9, 2026