TWO prominent Christian clerics are to visit Chester next week.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, the second most senior figure in the Church of England, will be in Chester Diocese for two days on Wednesday and Thursday, January 18 and 19.

The following weekend, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, who as Archbishop of Westminster from March 2000 to May 2009 was leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, will be preaching in Chester Cathedral on Sunday, January 22, at a service to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The archbishop’s visit follows an invitation from the Rt Rev Dr Peter Forster, the Bishop of Chester.

The bishop says Dr Sentamu ‘would like especially to engage with us in relation to the three priorities which the Archbishops’ Council and the General Synod have set for the coming five years’.

These are to encourage the spiritual and numerical growth of the church, to strengthen its ability to seek and serve the common good in society and to re-imagine its ministry, especially to ensure the church’s work in every parish.

On Wednesday afternoon the archbishop will be at Foxhill, the diocese’s spiritual retreat and conference centre in Frodsham, for talks with the Diocesan Committee for Ministry. Dr Sentamu reopened the centre in 2009 following a £1.25m refurbishment.

Commenting on a service at the cathedral to be attended by the archbishop at 7pm on Wednesday, the bishop said: “Only on rare occasions do we gather all clergy together between the triennial clergy conferences and I hope that we can all give this event in the cathedral with the archbishop our highest priority.”

Dr Sentamu, who will speak on Challenges and Opportunities facing the Church of England, is expected to answer questions.

On Thursday the archbishop will visit The Light Project, a training scheme for youth workers and Christian ministers based at Abbey House, Abbey Green. He will then go to Bishops’ Blue Coat High School in Great Boughton, a Church of England secondary school which has become an academy free of local education authority control.

The unity service at 3.30pm the following Sunday, at which Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor will preach, will be led by leaders from Churches Together in Cheshire.