Widespread use of online worship following the coronavirus lockdown has helped ‘set free’ previously overlooked gifts of Christians with disabilities, the Church of England’s weekly online service will hear.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has launched a free national phone line as a simple new way to bring worship and prayer into people’s homes.

The Church of England’s General Synod has set new targets for all parts of the church to work to become carbon ‘net zero’ by 2030. 

An initiative bringing hope to thousands of people in a former Staffordshire coal-mining town will continue beyond lockdown as a model for supporting the community.

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Durham have urged the Government to extend free school meals as they highlight the “harrowing” number of families who could be destitute by Christmas.

A free phone line offering hymns, prayers, and reflections 24 hours a day has received more than 6,000 calls in the first 48 hours.

The Church of England is preparing to take the church into people’s homes – through TV screens, laptops, computers and mobile phones – ahead of the first Sunday without public worship.

People who cannot attend a funeral because of the coronavirus restrictions are being provided with prayers and suggestions on how to pay their own tribute at home to the person who has died.

Christians in the UK will join in worship with their brothers and sisters across Europe and beyond this Sunday as the Church of England’s weekly online service goes international.

This article from Bishop Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York Designate, was published in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday 12 May 2020.