Displaying items by tag: Archbishop of York

On May 29th Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, accompanied by Mrs Cottrell and his chaplain, Rev Dr Jenny Wright, shared an audience with His Holiness Pope Francis at the Vatican in a bid to promote Christian unity. Before the trip, Archbishop Stephen expressed his hope for Christians of all denominations to work together more closely and unite in their desire to share God's love. He also met with representatives from the Dicastery for Evangelisation, the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He said, ‘meeting with sisters and brothers within the Roman Catholic Church is so encouraging. I pray that Christians of all denominations can work in unity, following the prompting of the Holy Spirit as we share the love of God with the many who long for hope and meaning in their lives.

Lament for the children and young people missing from the pews is ‘the heart’s cry of the Church’, the Archbishop of York said this week. He described his visits to churches mainly populated by older people and sometimes with no children or young people at all. ‘When I speak to them and ask them about their hopes and dreams for their church, almost without exception the first thing so-called older people say is “We wish there were more children and young people here.”’ Dr Sanjee Perera, the Archbishops’ adviser on minority ethnic Anglican concerns, spoke of decades of youth work in Anglican provinces that felt like ‘an exhausting losing battle’. Youth pastor Amanda Neill acknowledged that having a large youth group of more than 50 young people was ‘definitely unusual’. Young people think that the Church is outdated and irrelevant.

The new Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, has spoken of his desire to advance racial equality in the Church of England. He said he wanted to see the same change happen for the BAME community as has happened with women, who in recent years have become bishops for the first time. He said, ‘One of the failings of the church has been a form of tokenism without addressing the deep systemic issues of exclusion and prejudice, Jesus was a black man, and was born into a persecuted group in an occupied country.’ He added, ‘Jesus would have joined the Black Lives Matter protests. The Church of England leadership is still too white, and I hope under my watch we'll see further changes on that.’