The incoming Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, has used her Christmas Day sermon to warn that national conversations about immigration are dividing the country. Speaking at St Paul's Cathedral in her current role as Bishop of London, she said: 'Our national conversations about immigration continue to divide us, when our common humanity should unite us.'
Mullally urged the congregation to make room for others, stating: 'Joy is born exactly where despair expects to triumph. As joy breaks through in our lives it gives us the opportunity to become people who make room. Room in our homes. Room in our churches. Room in our public conversations and in the attitudes we hold.' She added that many people feel the weight of economic pressure and experience the hardship of inequality.
In a separate Christmas sermon, the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, spoke of divisions in society and described being 'intimidated' by Israeli militias during a visit to the Holy Land. He said he was stopped at checkpoints and prevented from visiting Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank. Cottrell warned of a tendency to be 'fearful of each other, and especially of strangers', and said this leads to spurning a common humanity.
Mullally, a former chief nursing officer for England, was named as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury in October. She will legally assume the role on 28 January following a confirmation ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral, with her enthronement at Canterbury Cathedral scheduled for 25 March. She succeeds Justin Welby, who resigned over his handling of an abuse scandal.
