Cardinal and Welby launch joint Lent prayer week

The leaders of the Catholic and Anglican Churches in England and Wales are to join forces this Lent in a prayer initiative focused on social action.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, announced that a week of ecumenical prayer for social action would take place at the end of Lent, from Passion Sunday on 6 April to Palm Sunday on 13 April.

The two will pray together and will visit church projects run by both denominations to see how the Churches are responding to people in need.

The Catholic Church and the Church of England will make prayer resources available online and are to ask people to tweet about how churches are helping people in their area, using the hashtag #ListenToGod.

In July following a meeting with Pope Francis, Archbishop Welby said that he was in talks with the Vatican about a new initiative that would link the two Churches in their efforts against poverty.