Archbishop of York Ends Australia Hong Kong Tour

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell has completed a two-week visit to Australia and Hong Kong, encouraging Anglican churches, schools and communities in their shared mission. The tour ran from 16 October to 2 November and took him to Perth, Brisbane and Hong Kong, where he preached in cathedrals, met clergy and visited schools and social ministries.

For an archbishop whose own diocese sits in the north of England, the trip was a long way from home in every sense. Two weeks, three cities, and a Church facing the same questions on opposite sides of the world: how to keep the faith alive when the culture around it keeps drifting away.

Archbishop of York Australia Tour Begins in Perth

The visit began in Western Australia at the invitation of Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy of Perth. Cottrell preached at the opening Eucharist of the Diocese of Perth's 52nd Synod at St George's Cathedral, joining clergy and lay representatives gathered from across the diocese.

He also preached at St George's Cathedral on the Feast of St Luke and visited Anglican scools in Perth.

One of the more unexpected stops came at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, where Cottrell gave an address exploring the work of British artist Stanley Spencer. The gallery holds eight of Spencer's portraits of Jesus, and the archbishop used them to open a conversation about how art can carry the Christian story.

Stephen Cottrell Preaches in Brisbane and Hong Kong

From Perth, Cottrell travelled to Brisbane, where he joined Archbishop Jeremy Greaves in preaching and meeting clergy from the Anglican Church of Southern Queensland. He began his Brisbane visit at St John's Cathedral, leading a clergy workshop on revitalising and renewing the preaching ministry.

He also spent time with Ray Minniecon, an Aboriginal pastor with roots in the Kabikabi and Gurang-Gurang tribes of Queensland. Minniecon's ministry among Aboriginal Christians is one of the stories he carried home with him.

Hong Kong was the final leg, and the first official visit by an Archbishop of York to the Province of Hong Kong. The Primate and Archbishop of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, the Most Revd Andrew Chan, welcomed him, and the two churches used the visit to build on growing links between the Diocese of Leeds and the Diocese of Hong Kong Island.

Cottrell preached at St John's Cathedral on All Saints' Day, 1 November, and gave a blessing at the thanksgiving service marking the 135th anniversary of the Cathedral of All Saints. He also visited Holy Trinity Cathedral staff and toured schools and social-service ministries, including Providence Gardens, a large rehabilitation unit run by the Hong Kong Anglican Welfare Association.

Archbishop of York Praises Hong Kong Anglicans

Speaking in Hong Kong, Cottrell described the province's vision for education, worship and social outreach as beautiful, saying he had been deeply inspired by what he had seen and experienced. The words were warm, but they carried a point: in a city where Christians are a small minority, the Anglican Church has built schools, welfare services and congregations that punch far above their weight.

The visit to Providence Gardens brought that home, serving people in what Cottrell called some of the most challenging circumstances in the province.

The trip comes at a testing time for the Church of England at home, where attendance figures have been flat and the public conversation about faith often sounds tired, as reported in No Revival in Britain as Church Attendance Stays Low. Yet the same reports keep showing signs of life among the young, as covered in John Armitage Sees England's Third Spring of Faith, and Cottrell's tour was, in part, an attempt to learn from churches that are growing in harder soil.

His own diocese has been running a Lord's Prayer tour across the north of England, and the Archbishop of Canterbury's inauguration of the new General Synod is still to come, as reported in Latest: King Charles to Inaugurate Church of England General Synod on November 17. The denomination is shrinking in some places and growing in others, as covered in United Methodist Church Membership Falls by 174,000 in 2025: New Report, and the same questions face churches everywhere, as reported in US Church Attendance Rises 65 to 70 After 25 Years.

What the Australia Hong Kong Tour Means for the Church

Tours like this one rarely make headlines. No single sermon in Perth or Brisbane will change the Church of England, and no blessing in Hong Kong will fill an empty pew in York, but the relationships built on a trip like this tend to last longer than the headlines.

The link between Leeds and Hong Kong Island is now stronger than it was a month ago. The clergy who sat in a Brisbane workshop on preaching will carry something of it into their pulpits. And the archbishop himself returns with fresh stories, including an Aboriginal pastor in Queensland and a rehabilitation unit in Hong Kong, to tell back home.

Whether those stories change anything in England is still an open question. The Church of England keeps asking itself how to reach a country that has mostly stopped listening, and the answers, if they come, will probably arrive slowly, parish by parish, rather than in a single announcement.

For now, the tour is over and the archbishop is home. What he saw will shape what he says next, and the churches he visited will be watching to see whether the encouragement turns into something more lasting than a visit. Churches elsewhere are finding new life in surprising places, as reported in Catalonia Evangelical Churches Surge as Catholic Sites Fall.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.