Almighty God,
who sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church:
open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love and joy and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
refresh#forest pic.twitter.com/2srP8byIWa
— Portmann Carrick (@PortmannCarrick) August 2, 2026
Toby Howarth was born in Kenya and went to school at Haverstock Comprehensive in North London. He received scholarships to study at high school and Yale University in the United States, including a summer working with Afghan refugees in northern Pakistan. On coming back to Britain, he was a research assistant for the Revd Dr John Stott for two years before becoming a postman in the East End of London.
After training in Oxford, Birmingham and Uganda, combining Christian theology with an MA in Islamic Studies at the University of Birmingham, Toby was ordained and served in an inner-city parish in Derby. He then moved to India with his family for five years, during which he did research in Islamic preaching for a PhD from the Free University of Amsterdam.
Returning to Europe, Toby served with a Dutch church in Rotterdam before moving back to Birmingham where he taught Islamic studies and worked as Tutor and then Vice Prinicpal at Crowther Hall in Selly Oak.
In 2004 he took up parish work again as Vicar of St Christopher’s, Springfield, a church in a majority Muslim area of Birmingham. In addition to the parish role, Toby was the Bishop of Birmingham’s Adviser on Inter Faith Relations until April 2011 when he became Interreligious Affairs Secretary for the Archbishop of Canterbury.
His Majesty The King has approved the nomination of The Rt Revd Toby Howarth as the 2nd Bishop of Leeds. Leeds is a remarkable diocese.
— Archbishop of York (@CottrellStephen) July 31, 2026
I am delighted that he will lead the next chapter of the life and witness of the church in this place. Bishop Toby’s passion for sharing the… pic.twitter.com/ewZNGfkEL9
Significant progress in church safeguarding is being undermined by resistance from senior officers, INEQE, the company auditing safeguarding in every diocese and cathedral, has said.
INEQE said in its 2025 audit that the Church of England was experiencing a “dangerous” period of institutional “drift” regarding future safeguarding structures.
The company also said that unprecedented engagement from more than 10,000 contributors showed “a maturing safeguarding culture, though critical structural inhibitors remain at the senior level”.
The findings are set out in INEQE’s 2025 Annual Report on the Independent Safeguarding Audits of Church of England Dioceses and Cathedrals, alongside two companion reports, Chorister Safeguarding and Victim and Survivor Engagement.
The audit highlighted “tangible” improvements in safeguarding, increasingly understood as a “gospel and theological imperative” rather than as merely an administrative requirement. The report also speaks of growing confidence among individuals in raising concerns without fear of reprisal.
Church of England bishops have urged Ed Miliband to intervene to halt the executions and torture of Christians in Saudi Arabian jails.
Three bishops for Southwark, Chelmsford and Winchester have written to Mohammed bin Salman, the ruler of Saudi Arabia, urging him to call an immediate halt to the executions of more than 50 Ethiopian Christians currently on death row in the state.
They have also submitted their appeal to the Foreign Office seeking an intervention from Mr Miliband, the new Foreign Secretary, to save the lives of the Christian captives.
The bishops claimed there was evidence that the Ethiopians – who fled conflict in their own country – had been mistreated, with several of them tortured and forced to sign documents they could not read or understand.
Good to see several English bishops calling on the Foreign Secretary to use British influence in Riyadh on behalf of 50 Ethiopian Christians facing execution. The Saudi regime remains brutally repressive.
— Philip Anderson (@P_G_Anderson) July 28, 2026
Also good to read it all reported in the Telegraph.https://t.co/xmI8bFAmKW
The campaigning group Save the Parish (STP) has launched its manifesto for the elections to the next General Synod. It is calling for financial resources to be decentralised and redirected towards parish ministry to save “the essence of the Church of England itself”.
Six commitments are outlined in the manifesto, which was launched at St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, in London, on Saturday, by the Rector, the Revd Marcus Walker. He warned of an “existential crisis” facing the Church.
The commitments, based on the group’s “founding priorities of ‘parish’, ‘priest’ and ‘people’”, are to: restore Church Commissioners’ funds to stipendiary parish ministry; direct the parish share to mission and “the cure of souls”; adopt a “charter of care that values our clergy and guards them from mental and physical exhaustion”; renew theological resourcing for theological education “which is ordinand-centred not budget-centred”; adopt a “churchgoers’ charter” that honours the volunteers who hold the parishes together; and reform the Mission and Pastoral Measure.
Fr Walker, who chairs the STP network, said: “If we want there to be a thriving parish system in a generation’s time, we have to get up and do something.
Good point from @WalkerMarcus. It’s the poorer parishes that suffer most from Church funds being diverted into highly paid woke diocesan posts to be Engagement Officers, Diversity Officers, Policy Officers, Media Officers, etc, etc… pic.twitter.com/gZHtv4UCrl
— Harry Phibbs (@harryph) July 25, 2026
Speaking of the grit which forms the pearl is an unusual way of interpreting the parable of the pearl, which is more often assumed to focus on its value and the response of the merchant, who, “went away and sold everything he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:46). Some may say that Jesus did not speak about the grit because of his lack of scientific understanding, and that the Archbishop’s interpretation is just a case of proclaiming the faith “afresh to every generation”. Others would disagree, pointing out that Jesus used the parable of the sower to explain how the Kingdom of God grows, and would suggest that the Archbishop should have turned to the earlier verses of Matthew 13 to make her point. But that might have been awkward, because Jesus is clear that it is the word of God that is the seed that is sown and that the Kingdom of God grows as each individual, “hears the word and understands it.” (Matthew 13:23)
Despite references to the, “Gospel of Jesus Christ” and a plea that the Church would continue with, “our hope rooted in the Gospel, and our confidence rooted in God,” there was no expectation in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s first presidential address that she expected the Church to hear God’s word and understand it.
Sadly, it seems, that just like Justin Welby before her, Sarah Mullally will lead the Church of England further into the mire, the only difference being that she will be “calm, consistent and compassionate” as she does it.
NEW: The Prince and Princess of Wales are visiting the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, at Lambeth Palace this afternoon for the first time! 💒 pic.twitter.com/5mnTChcaMu
— Belle (@RoyallyBelle_) February 5, 2026
Secondly, unless something almost miraculous happens, there will remain deep divisions over where those boundaries of legitimacy are to be drawn and over the implications for church teaching and discipline of drawing them in different places. Related to this are the questions noted above concerning our disagreement about the level of disagreement that we are having to navigate. Here the recent FAOC work must not be forgotten and in particular the implications need to be considered of its strong and clear statement (GS Misc 1406, paper 1, para 139), that
it is a failure of Christian love for one side to declare what kind of disagreement is being experienced by the other. It must surely be the case that those who disagree with a given decision are themselves determinative of what kind of disagreement is in view, not the content majority. Those who dissent from the majority view or decision get to define the nature of their disagreement: if it is widely held that such-and-such a belief or practice calls into question apostolic communion or ecclesial communion, then the disagreement simply is a first- or second-order disagreement, regardless of whether the majority think it merely strains communion (third order).
This is the deeper problem with the approach of the amendment: it appears that those who conscientiously have come to a position which represents a rejection or expansion or development of traditional teaching seem to be demanding that those who are not convinced by their arguments should nevertheless accept that their view is now within a “legitimate range of theological perspectives” and/or that if a majority can be shown to hold this view as to what is legitimate then church practice needs to adapt to embrace the full range of perspectives. There is an attempt to jump from acknowledgment of an indisputable pluralism in reality (a range of views clearly exists) to a pluralism that recognises that range of views as acceptable, indeed, legitimate.
Thirdly, as noted in the first proposed amendment, part of the remit of the new group set up by the bishops is “pastoral reassurance”. This points to the fact that our disagreements over the previous two areas are such that some form of ecclesial reconfiguration will most likely prove to be necessary if any way is to be found, within the Church of England, for opposing views to be able to be officially approved and for the opposing sides in votes such as that this week in Synod, to be able to co-exist well, even flourish. This might be understood as institutionally enabling some recognised form of principled pluralism that comes to terms with both the pluralist reality and the impossibility of sufficiently widespread acceptance of that pluralism being formally accepted as legitimate within the current episcopal and synodical structures.
It was the refusal of the bishops to seriously address these matters of “pastoral reassurance” or “good differentiation” that in large part contributed to the winding up of the LLF/PLF process. We could continue with a “head in the sand” refusal to grapple with the ecclesiological implications of our deep disagreements about discipleship and about the legitimate range of discipleship options the Church of England can recognise and bless. The experience of this last, short debate in this recent Synod is, however, a further pointer to the fact that if we do not face this question head-on and with honesty and theological rigour early in the new Synod then, barring a sea-change one way or the other in the election results, and perhaps also now in the House of Bishops, we are simply preparing for continued unresolvable conflict and pain in the next five years.
Andrew Goddard on the Helen King motion discussion at CofE General @synod 'This is the deeper problem with the approach of the amendment: it appears that those who conscientiously have come to a position which represents a rejection or expansion or development of traditional… pic.twitter.com/U3ZkfLUbBN
— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) July 20, 2026
Almighty God,
by whose grace we celebrate again
the feast of your servant Swithun:
grant that, as he governed with gentleness
the people committed to his care,
so we, rejoicing in our Christian inheritance,
may always seek to build up your Church in unity and love;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
2/2 St Swithin on the village sign at Ashmanhaugh, Norfolk, where the church, which has the narrowest round tower in England, is also dedicated to him, two of the four in the county. More on these two:
— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) July 15, 2026
Frettenham: https://t.co/C1pJ38sGp8
Ashmanhaugh: https://t.co/4INAxVAHTP pic.twitter.com/lcQAPJayXO
Despite the well-intended efforts of the Church, the prayer was widely mocked on social media. As a result, vicars and lay members of the General Synod raised their concerns in writing, asking: “Is there a requirement for staff writing such prayers to be practising Christians?”
Despite the well-intended efforts of the Church, the prayer was widely mocked on social media. As a result, vicars and lay members of the General Synod raised their concerns in writing, asking: “Is there a requirement for staff writing such prayers to be practising Christians?”
Among those who criticised the prayer, published last month, were commentators such as the Rev Jamie Franklin. On his Irreverend podcast, he described it as poorly written, theologically shallow, embarrassingly unserious and a perfect symbol of the institution’s current woes.
A post on the Anglican Ordinariate Forum on Facebook read: “The Church of England insists on making a mockery of itself and of prayer.”
A prayer for the World Cup 2026. ⚽ pic.twitter.com/32I2TgC2it
— The Church of England (@churchofengland) June 11, 2026
Clerical accountability must be “vigorously tackled” and is “the key issue for the Church to tackle and should not be a protracted debate”, a report on trust in the Church of England concludes.
The report, Trust and Trustworthiness in the Church of England: Listening and responding to usual and unusual challenges, was produced by Professor Veronica Hope Hailey, a former Dean of the Business School at the University of Bristol, drawing on 74 interviews with bishops, clergy, lay people, and members of the national church institutions.
“Whilst no one wants to return to the feudal patriarchal structures of the past, if the institution is to restore trust with the society it is meant to serve, clerical accountability must be vigorously tackled,” Professor Hope Hailey writes.
“It’s not simply about formal control but also the need to change the culture of individualism some clergy seem to think they deserve. That love of autonomy means that they can be inconsistent and unpredictable in their promises to implement policy.”
Clerical accountability must be “vigorously tackled”, a report on trust in the Church of England has concluded. It is “the key issue for the Church to tackle and should not be a protracted debate”, it says ⚖️#Clergy #churchnews #report https://t.co/oyP7wJBq8p
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) July 1, 2026
Memories of seeing small numbers of people come to faith gradually, while serving on outer estates, were shared by the new Bishop of Ely, the Rt Revd Sarah Clark, this week.
“Sometimes growth came but it was one by one,” she said. “The apostle Paul talks about a labour of love and I think in some smaller communities, where it’s been a struggle, it’s a real labour of love. It takes a lot of energy and lot of faith, hope, and love.”
Bishop Clark, who served in parish ministry in the diocese of Southwell & Nottingham for 16 years after ordination, was installed in Ely Cathedral on Sunday. In her sermon, she spoke of a longing to see the diocese “grow increasingly confident in the person who we believe has risen from the dead and is alive and shares that life with anyone who comes to him — for that is the gift we have to share”.
The Statement of Needs produced prior to her appointment was frank about the challenges facing the diocese, noting that the diocesan plan, Ely 2025: People Fully Alive, had failed to reverse the decline in attendance. It continued: “Our new bishop will have to consider how to address the decline and whether a further period of centralised planning is likely to be the most effective tool to deploy.”
I really enjoyed interviewing the new Bishop of Ely, on among other things parish ministry & life as a convert https://t.co/KHfjfGkzjL pic.twitter.com/jrRStihG9d
— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) June 26, 2026
“Strong frustration” that a report on the seal of confession remains with the House of Bishops and has “effectively been paused for over a year” has been expressed by members of the Task and Finish Group for the Makin report.
The group has requested that the issue be escalated to the National Safeguarding Steering Group.
The group was established to “scrutinise, challenge and advise” on the Church of England’s response to the 27 recommendations arising from Keith Makin’s review of the Church’s handling of allegations of abuse perpetrated by John Smyth.
Last year, it reported that all 27 would be accepted — 24 in full, and the other three “partially” (News, 7 November 2025).
“Strong frustration” that a report on the seal of confession remains with the House of Bishops and has “effectively been paused for over a year” has been expressed by members of the Task and Finish Group for the Makin report.https://t.co/y7QCdyTY0t
— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) June 24, 2026
Child poverty is “not just an issue of economics, but a crisis of human dignity and a moral challenge to the kind of society we wish to build”, the Bishop of Peterborough, the Rt Revd Debbie Sellin, has said.
Speaking during a House of Lords debate last week on the Government’s Child Poverty Strategy, Bishop Sellin referred to research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that “food is now the most common essential that low-income households are going without.”
A C of E primary school near Daventry had set up a community larder, she said, “providing affordable food to families struggling to make ends meet, along with ensuring that all children [have] a good breakfast each morning. Volunteer groups work hard to bring isolated families back into community life, but they find their efforts stifled by lack of investment in infrastructure.”
Child poverty is ‘a crisis of human dignity’ and a ‘moral challenge’ https://t.co/05zMjJPM8x
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 23, 2026
A ban on social media for under-16s, announced by the Government this week, will not guarantee child safety online, Bishops and safeguarding specialists have warned.
Two C of E Bishops — one in favour of the ban and the other opposed — nonetheless agreed this week that a ban in isolation was not enough, and that both scrutiny of big tech social media companies and investment in youth services was essential if children are to be protected from harm.
The Children’s Society warned against letting the tech companies off the hook, while Jim Gamble, the chief executive of INEQE, the safeguarding group currently auditing all Church of England dioceses and cathedrals, said that, while well intentioned, a ban was not practical.
A ban on social media for under-16s, announced by the Government this week, will not guarantee child safety online, Bishops and safeguarding specialists have warned#socialmediaban #under16s #churchnews https://t.co/Os2gr5VbRw
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 16, 2026
Responding to the news that a Bill to permit assisted dying is to be reintroduced to Parliament, the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, has told the Church Times that she remains committed to scrutinising the legislation in the House of Lords — although MPs may use the Parliament Act to bypass the Upper House.
“The issues around workability and safety remain, as do the issues around the funding of palliative and social care,” she said.
The Bishop was speaking after the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood, Lauren Edwards, announced that she would use another Private Member’s Bill to reintroduce the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill into the House of Commons.
Responding to the news that a Bill to permit assisted dying is to be reintroduced to Parliament, the Bishop of Newcastle has told the Church Times that she remains committed to scrutinising it in the Lords—although MPs may use the Parliament Act https://t.co/uHGU8uJZkN
— James Macintyre (@James_Macintyre) June 15, 2026
Safeguarding in the Church of England could be broadened to include anyone harmed or at risk of harm in a church context, after the C of E’s National Safeguarding Team (NST) launched a consultation.
The fresh approach is a result of recommendations from the Charity Commission, which has pointed out that the “Church does not treat allegations of abuse from an adult not assessed to be ‘vulnerable’ as a safeguarding allegation”. Its own guidance says that trustees “must take reasonable steps to protect from harm all people who come into contact with their charity”.
The consultation, What is Safeguarding?, focuses on the code of practice Safeguarding in the Church, the subject of a consultation in April and May. Until now, it has been referred to as Safeguarding Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults. The change of title follows recommendations from the Commission that the NST review definitions of safeguarding and vulnerable adults.
“It is very important to note that this document is in the very early stages of thinking,” the NST says in a preface.
Church of England’s definition of safeguarding could be broadened https://t.co/rheEMJAw4y
— Simon Sarmiento (@simonsarmiento) June 11, 2026
The Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, has welcomed a poll of more than 10,000 people which suggests that a majority in all 632 parliamentary constituencies oppose the proposed law on assisted dying being revisited without full scrutiny and approval by both chambers.
Dr Hartley was on the House of Lords select committee that examined the Private Member’s Bill brought by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater in October 2024 (News, 18 October 2024), and spoke against it before it was defeated earlier this year in the Upper House (News, 1 May). She told the Church Times that the poll “confirms that the public does not support the suggestion of bypassing the House of Lords in order to force through an unsafe Bill”.
She said: “This would mean using a procedure never used for a Bill of this kind and acting against the advice of medical professionals, disability groups, and the concerns of all those who want to see legislation that is safe and workable.
“For a Bill of this magnitude in terms of societal change, the highest level of scrutiny is imperative.”
The Bishop of Newcastle has welcomed a poll of more than 10,000 people which suggests that a majority in all 632 parliamentary constituencies oppose the proposed law on #assisteddying being revisited without full scrutiny and approval by both chambershttps://t.co/1fB16bi9sv
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 10, 2026
Loving God, may thy Name be blest for the witness of Ini Kopuria, police officer and founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood, whose members saved many American pilots in a time of war, and who continue to minister courageously to the islanders of Melanesia. Open our eyes that we, with these Anglican brothers, may establish peace and hope in service to others, for the sake of Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Success had hinged on the churchwarden at the time — Nigel Boldero, an “absolute force of nature” with a background in project delivery, Mr Whitehead said. There was now a “greater expectation of professionalism” from the Lottery, he said, which could pose challenges — given skills shortages in some areas.
Mr Whitehead said that the Community Changemarkers conference had conveyed “a real sense of optimism, of hope”. He continued: “I feel really strongly that there is value in the small, value in these rural places, which might not be measurable in terms of numbers of people in church on a Sunday, but is measurable in the depth of commitment people have to tending their churchyards, to giving money to restoring the tower or the clock, or whatever it might be.”
There was, he said, a tendency to look down on, or make fun of, the rural. “We get Dibleyfied, basically,” he said. “I think there is life in the rural church, and I think, where you can find it and you can spread it, that that kind of thing is infectious.”
The hundred visitors who descended on St Peter’s, Haveringland, in Norfolk, last month were far more than it usually has in a day. It is known locally as “the church in the fields” and stands in isolation on a former Second World War airfield #ruralchurchhttps://t.co/SL4mjEQ6xa
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 3, 2026
O God, by whose providence the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church: Grant that we who remember before thee the blessed martyrs of Uganda, may, like them, be steadfast in our faith in Jesus Christ, to whom they gave obedience even unto death, and by their sacrifice brought forth a plentiful harvest; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
3 June 1886, 32 young men, pages in the court of Bugandan King, burned to death at #Namugongo. As Christians, they refused king’s homosexual advances & demand to renounce faith. Led to many coming to faith: the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. #Uganda #martyrsday pic.twitter.com/K8ljxhlATB
— Revd Nicholas Pye (@RevdPye) June 3, 2026
The dignity of retired clergy demands a “transformed mindset” among the Church’s leaders, the Retired Clergy Association has told the Clergy Retirement Dignity and Fairness Review (News, 1 May).
“An increase in pensions or the lump sum will not compensate for disparaging our members, nor is it likely to be achieved without a transformed mindset that accords them a dignified value,” the eight-page submission stated.
While drawing attention to the financial precariousness of some retired clergy — some of whom spend more than two-thirds or more of their income on church retirement housing — it raised concerns about wider attitudes to its members.
Retired Clergy Association tells fairness & dignity review that many dioceses depended on retired clergy to cover weekly services and calls for a "transformed mindset" in the Church in terms of how they are treated https://t.co/PvJgnEnmRO
— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) May 31, 2026
The journey towards its designation as a minster is not the only significant change shaping the ecclesiastical landscape in St Helens. The St Helens deanery, in Liverpool diocese, along with West Derby, was the first to embark on the diocese’s six-year programme Fit for Mission, which seeks to tackle decades of church decline by restructuring parishes into larger single parishes (LSPs).
The new larger parish of Church St Helens came into being on 1 May 2024, bringing together 11 of the 19 churches in the deanery (News, 10 May 2024) after votes at every PCC in 2022, and the approval of a draft scheme by the Church Commissioners.
In 2025, ten out of 13 parishes in West Derby deanery formed Christ our Hope, Liverpool, and, in March this year, all 12 churches in Warrington deanery opted in to the model.
“Crucially,churches have not lost their identity. Each congregation has retained its own DNA, traditions, and sense of call, while being better supported within a wider parish framework"#dioceseofliverpool
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 1, 2026
https://t.co/aN0xodAGyO
O Lord, from whom all good things come:
grant to us your humble servants,
that by your holy inspiration
we may think those things that are good,
and by your merciful guiding may perform the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The visitation recorded concerns about the spiritual life of the cathedral, noting that “the spiritual dimension of Chapter’s work appears less visible than might be expected.” It continued: “Theological reflection in decision-making is limited and shared prayer outside formal worship is infrequent.”
While the daily offices and Sunday services are “offered with dignity and care”, the cathedral has “limited awareness of the needs and well-being of its congregation”, the report says. Home communion reaches “only a small number of people”, and visiting “relies almost entirely on a few individuals”.
The cathedral’s relationship with the community “feels distant and strained” the report says. “Many residents perceive it as focused on tourists rather than locals. This disconnect has led to frustration, missed opportunities, and weakened trust.”
Among senior clergy, working relationships have become “strained, creating an environment that makes collaboration and effective decision-making difficult”. Stipendiary clergy must commit themselves to gathering daily for shared prayer.
Interesting that one of the recommendations here was that the clergy commit themselves to gathering daily for shared prayer – something that was infrequent outside formal worship. The spiritual dimension explored.https://t.co/wI26w8NIUW
— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) May 28, 2026
The diocese of Bristol announced on Wednesday that the person due to be announced as its next Bishop was no longer able to take up the position “due to family reasons”.
The Bishop of Swindon, the Rt Revd Neil Warwick, who has served as acting diocesan bishop since Bishop Vivienne Faull’s retirement last September (News, 14 February 2025), will continue to serve in this capacity.
The Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) met in April and nominated a candidate, a statement from Church House said. “The individual has since decided, with regret, to withdraw from the nomination for family reasons. The existing CNC for Bristol will reconvene as soon as possible to decide how to proceed.”
Statement from diocese of Bristol this afternoon: "We had hoped to announce our new bishop at this time. However, due to family reasons, the person offered the role is no longer able to take it up. Let us hold them in our prayers at this time." 🙏https://t.co/hAnvTxhOpx
— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) May 27, 2026
O Lord our God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst call thine apostles and send them forth to preach the Gospel to the nations: We bless thy holy name for thy servant Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, whose labors in propagating thy Church among the English people we commemorate today; and we pray that all whom thou dost call and send may do thy will, and bide thy time, and see thy glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Today is the feast day of St Augustine of Canterbury.
— The Church of England (@churchofengland) May 26, 2026
Augustine was sent from Rome to England by Pope Gregory the Great, to re-establish Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons. He later became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
📍 St John the Evangelist, Cowley/Lawrence OP pic.twitter.com/UqxdVyulP7
Heritage funding for the 14,000 listed places of worship in England, including cathedrals, is to come in upfront capital grants, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has announced. Those in areas of high deprivation and “facing overwhelming fund-raising challenges” would be prioritised, it said on Wednesday.
The new Places of Worship Renewal Fund (PWRF) succeeds the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS), under which places of worship could reclaim all the VAT paid on repairs and maintenance. Last year, the LPWGS was capped at £25,000 for each place of worship, meaning that those undertaking major repairs — such as a new roof — had to raise extra funds to cover VAT costs for the first time in two decades (News, 25 January 2025).
The new PWRF grant scheme is to be delivered by Historic England and is intended to bring places of worship in line with other heritage buildings. It has been influenced by the success of the Heritage at Risk and the Heritage Revival Funds, and, in targeting areas of greatest need, puts the emphasis on the community, DCMS says.
Heritage funding for the 14,000 listed places of worship in England, including cathedrals, is to come in upfront capital grants, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has announced. Those in areas of high deprivation would be prioritisedhttps://t.co/G2J758K7rI
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) May 20, 2026
Almighty God, who in a rude and barbarous age didst raise up thy deacon Alcuin to rekindle the light of learning: Illumine our minds, we pray thee, that amid the uncertainties and confusions of our own time we may show forth thine eternal truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
May 20: Feast of Alcuin (Ealhwine) (†804), scholar and theologian. He was born in Northumbria and educated at the cathedral school in York. In 781, he met Charlemagne, who he became a key advisor to. In 796 he became abbot of St Martin at Tours. Alcuin, centre, depicted c.831 pic.twitter.com/qHqG8eLZaT
— North Ages (@NorthAges) May 20, 2026
Both the Church’s funding bodies and the Government should ramp up investment in cathedrals, where financial pressures are resulting in commercial bookings that risk “crowding out the sense of stillness and calm”, a new report has concluded.
Living Stones: English cathedrals as sacred spaces in changing times celebrated the contribution made by the country’s cathedrals, but warned that they are in “serious difficulty”, with 80 per cent in structural deficit.
“The pressures of financial survival can consume so much energy and attention that there is little left for the deeper questions of purpose and mission,” it said.
Produced by Theos, the report was funded by the Church Commissioners’ Cathedral Sustainability Fund and the Association of English Cathedrals (AEC). It will be presented to the National Cathedrals Conference in Bristol this week.
Both the Church’s funding bodies and the Government should ramp up investment in #cathedrals, where financial pressures are resulting in commercial bookings that risk “crowding out the sense of stillness and calm”, a new report has concluded#churchnewshttps://t.co/t0Vje0hvt0
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) May 19, 2026
The text comes from Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, ed. Inge B. Milfull (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 317-8. Here’s a translation:
Hail Dunstan, star and shining adornment of bishops, true light of the English nation and leader preceding it on its path to God.
You are the greatest hope of your people, and also an innermost sweetness, breathing the honey-sweet fragrance of life-giving balms.
In you, Father, we trust, we to whom nothing is more pleasing than you are. To you we stretch out our hands, to you we pour out our prayers….
19 May is the feast of St Dunstan, one of the greatest saints of Anglo-Saxon England, who died in 988. Archbishop of Canterbury during a transformative time for the English church and nation, he was also a talented musician, craftsman and devil-fighter. https://t.co/HblFsbRp5o pic.twitter.com/1Cfss1LEaI
— Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford) May 19, 2026