Articles
Posted on Thu 14 May 2020
Archbishop of Canterbury secretly helps on virus wards
It is most encouraging that the Archbishop of Canterbury is visiting Coronavirus patients at St Thomas’ Hospital, praying for the sick and dying (News, 13 May).
This is very much what clergy should be doing, even if it means regrettable restrictions on their movements in other aspects of their life. I hope that the Church and the NHS are also enabling parish clergy, with the needed safeguards, to visit the sick and the dying from their parishes to comfort them, provide them with the sacraments and, where necessary, to give them the last rites. It is well known that the spiritual dimension is vital to healing and health and it would be good to know that chaplains are being supported in their vital work.
Yours faithfully,
+Michael Nazir-Ali
Ths letter was first published in the Daily Telegraph on Friday 15th May