Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations

As bishops and archbishops from the worldwide Anglican Communion sever links with England’s first female archbishop of Canterbury, citing her church’s “false teaching,” Catholics are being urged to maintain friendly ties while dropping illusions about future reunification.

Archbishop Sarah Mullally was confirmed as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England’s first woman leader in its 1,400-year history.

Amid the 2026 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Jan. 18-25, OSV News spoke with Bishop Joseph C. Bambera of Scranton, Pa., who serves as chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the Catholic co-chair of the Holy See’s International Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue committee, part of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

As the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity unfolded, the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches of the Holy Land warned that Christian Zionism was among the “damaging ideologies” being pushed that ultimately harmed the presence and unity of Christians in the Holy Land.