A message of joy and hope to the Anglican Communion from the next Archbishop of Canterbury – The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally DBE.

‘Dear sisters and brothers,

‘When I think about the Anglican Communion, I am filled with joy and hope. As a vibrant part of God’s universal church, it serves millions of Christians across the globe, spanning diverse cultures and traditions. I give thanks for the churches of the Anglican Communion and their faithful Christian presence in communities worldwide.

‘Through the deep bonds of friendship shared between the Provinces, I know that every day, Anglican churches strengthen one another in mission; stand alongside one another in times of adversity and speak out on matters of injustice and inequality.

His Majesty The King has approved the nomination of the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally, as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, Downing Street has announced.

The 106th Archbishop of Canterbury since Saint Augustine arrived in Kent from Rome in 597, Bishop Sarah will be the first woman to hold the office. 

She will be installed in a service at Canterbury Cathedral in March 2026.

Sarah Mullally has been the Bishop of London since 2018, the first woman appointed to that role, and before that was Bishop of Crediton in the Diocese of Exeter. Prior to her ordination in 2001, she was the Government’s Chief Nursing Officer for England – the youngest person ever to be appointed to that role at the age of 37 – having previously specialised as a cancer nurse. Bishop Sarah has described nursing as ‘an opportunity to reflect the love of God’.

Scanning is becoming easier. The earliest scans in this archive were made in 2008 using a flatbed scanner. 18,000 individual JPEGs were later inserted into PDF files for posting. By 2013, when scanning at the Anglican Centre in Rome, I was able to use a photocopier directly to create a PDF, but these scans had only 200 dpi resolution and no colour or lighting correction.

“Several concrete solutions have been proposed that, while respecting the principle of Nicaea, would allow Christians to celebrate together the ‘Feast of Feasts,’” the Holy Father said.

Pope Leo XIV on Saturday said the Catholic Church is open to establishing a common date of Easter among all Christian churches, echoing one of the aims of the Council of Nicaea that met 1,700 years ago.

The Pope spoke to participants of the symposium “Nicaea and the Church of the Third Millennium: Towards Catholic-Orthodox Unity,” which took place this week at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

The Holy Father called the 325 Council of Nicaea “foundational for the common journey that Catholics and Orthodox have undertaken together since the Second Vatican Council.”

Representatives from 16 world Communions gathered in Assisi from May 5-7, to discuss the development of a common liturgical celebration focused on creation. This included the Anglican Communion, Baptist World Alliance, Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran World Federation and Eastern Orthodox churches.

Christian traditions have a yearly cycle or liturgical year, with different seasons and events, including feasts and holy days. They commemorate important aspects of Christian history and theology.

The ecumenical dialogue in Assisi explored whether a new liturgical feast of creation could be developed and celebrated across a number of Christian calendars. It was a continuation of discussions that were held in Assisi in 2024.

During a special audience with religious leaders who came to Rome for the inauguration of his papal ministry, Pope Leo XIV vowed to continue working towards Christian unity and promoting dialogue among all religions.

“Now is the time for dialogue and building bridges,” the pope said May 19 as he met with the leaders in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.

His guests included Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, and Catholicos Awa III, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, as well as Anglican, Methodist, and Lutheran leaders. Representatives of the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, and Jain communities also attended.

I thought that travelling to Thursday Island in the Torres Strait was a big trip to make when I responded to Bishop Keith Joseph’s invitation to preside at the Easter services at the Old Cathedral of All Souls and St Bartholomew this year. Little did I realise that just a few days after Easter I would receive a request from the Anglican Communion Office to be part of the Anglican representation at Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome the following weekend.

Planning had to proceed quickly, and I flew out on the Wednesday on flight legs that added up to around 24 hours in the air before arriving in Rome on the Thursday afternoon. Our delegation, led by the Primate of Brazil, Archbishop Marinez Bassotto, assembled at the Anglican Centre, Rome before we were taken to St Peter’s Basilica to pray where Pope Francis’ body lay in state in an open coffin.

Together with our Roman Catholic siblings and other Christians in Rome and around the world, Anglicans enthusiastically, welcome the ‘gaudium magnum’ announced yesterday from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica: the election of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV as the 267th Bishop of Rome.

We offer our heartfelt prayers and support as the new Holy Father begins his singular Petrine ministry in service of the global Church, particularly in this age of war, poverty, mass migration, division and distrust, in which those who suffer most are the innocent and most vulnerable among us. We are encouraged by the first words of his papacy: ‘La pace sia con tutti voi! [Peace be with you all!] This is the peace of the Risen Christ: a disarmed and disarming peace, a humble and preserving peace. It comes from God – God, who loves all of us, without any limits or conditions.’

Prior to his election as Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. Here is the biography of the 267th Bishop of Rome.

The first Augustinian Pope, Leo XIV is the second Roman Pontiff – after Pope Francis – from the Americas. Unlike Jorge Mario Bergoglio, however, the 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost is from the northern part of the continent, though he spent many years as a missionary in Peru before being elected head of the Augustinians for two consecutive terms.

The new Bishop of Rome was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.

The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, the Rt Revd Anthony Poggo, has shared a message of encouragement on the election of Pope Leo XIV. The statement reads:

With great joy, we welcome the election and appointment of Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Pope and Bishop of Rome.

On behalf of the worldwide Anglican Communion, we share our prayers, celebration and encouragement as His Holiness takes up his global ministry in service of the Church.

May he lead with faithfulness, vision and courage, embodying the Christian values of peace and justice in service of mission and evangelisation.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) extended ecumenical greetings to Pope Leo XIV and an assurance of continuing engagement with the Roman Catholic Church in the era of its new pontiff.

WCC moderator of the central committee, Bishop Prof. Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, expressed joy and hope. “As successor of Pope Francis, he will move in a strong tradition,” said Bedford-Strohm. “I expect him to continue Pope Francis’ witness of love towards all people, especially those most vulnerable, and of love for nonhuman creation.”

A Holy Eucharist service was held in Rome to mark the commissioning of the Rt Revd Anthony Ball as the director of the Anglican Centre in Rome. It was held on May 6, 2025.

The Anglican Centre in Rome is the permanent Anglican Communion presence in Rome. It embodies the Anglican Communion’s commitment to the full visible unity of the Church, with a particular focus on building trusted relationships with the Catholic Church and advancing shared ecumenical priorities.

As director, Bishop Anthony Ball will lead the Centre alongside his role as the representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Holy See, playing a key role in the interface between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church.

The commissioning service gathered people of many Christian traditions in the chapel of Saint Augustine of Canterbury at the Anglican Centre in Rome. Bishop Anthony reflected on the service, observing that “Perhaps inevitably, I have a sense of trepidation coming into the role at such a time. The service helped dispel some of that – it felt like a family coming together to encourage one of their own.”

More than 11,000 people have participated in the consultations for the next Archbishop of Canterbury – carried out online, by post and in person between February and March this year.

The public consultation was a unique opportunity to influence the future of leadership within the Church, helping to discern the gifts, skills and qualities required in the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury to meet the needs of the Church today and in the years to come.

The themes that emerge through this consultation will sit alongside the ‘Statement of Needs’ produced by the Diocese of Canterbury, as well as other information provided by the National Church and Anglican Communion. This information will inform the Canterbury Crown Nominations Commission of the needs of the mission of the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion.

The fact that Anglicans and Catholics are not able to receive the Eucharist together yet is a matter of sadness,” the Bishop of Ossory Niall Coll said at the start of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

In his homily at an Anglican Eucharist in St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny last weekend, Bishop Coll said the Church of Ireland liturgy, as well as his attendance at a meeting of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission last year, were the “most moving experiences” of spiritual communion for him.

He told the congregation he hoped they would be “a further impetus to continue our ecumenical journey together so that we might one day break bread together around the same altar”.

The Anglican Communion is moving “from a season of raw and antagonistic division to one of reckoning with what will likely be a long process of resolution”, the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) has said.

The body met in Kuala Lumpur from 6 to 12 December, and released a communiqué on 18 December in which it wrote that members had “wrestled” with their divisions, and felt that “we may now be able to face our theological differences and associated fractures more productively, as we seek responsible and creative ways to remain together, albeit to varying degrees.”

The body has an advisory position in the Communion, and is formed of 18 members, drawn from six continents. About two-thirds of the members come from countries considered to be part of the global South.