Archbishop of Canterbury vows to help Palestinians achieve 'freedom you deserve'
The archbishop of Canterbury has pledged to help Palestinians achieve "the peace you desire and the freedom you deserve" and praised their "faithful resistance" on a visit to the occupied West Bank.
Dame Sarah Mullally, the head of the Church of England, made the comments last Sunday during a sermon at St Peter's, an Anglican church in the Palestinian Christian town of Birzeit.
She told the congregation that "your faithful, hopeful resistance is also visible as fathers and mothers navigate the web of checkpoints daily to provide an income for their family, or to get their children to school to provide for their future, or as you gather to break bread together week by week in this church.
"All these acts of faithful resistance point to our hope in Jesus Christ and reflect your ongoing struggle for freedom and dignity."
The archbishop added that she was aware that she enjoys certain freedoms that Palestinians don't, such as "being able to cross borders and checkpoints, spending time in neighbouring communities, and going to Jerusalem".
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"I will use my role as archbishop to seek the peace you desire and the freedom you deserve," she said.
"I hope that, through my visit, you may also know that you are not forgotten by the wider body of Christ.
"The church is called to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. The church stands with you in your right to live in freedom and dignity."
Meeting with Palestinian detainee
On her trip, Mullally met Layan Nasir, a 26-year-old Palestinian Christian woman who has been detained three times by Israel in the past five years.
"I’m grateful to Layan’s family for their hospitality in their home,” Mullally said.
"I will pray for them, and for God’s blessing and healing for Layan after the terrible ordeal of her incarceration. I pray for the release of all people who have been unjustly imprisoned, here in Palestine and Israel and around the world."
The archbishop also visited Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem. She travelled with Archbishop Hosam Naoum, the Anglican archbishop in Jerusalem.
Mullally said: "This visit is an opportunity to listen to both their hopes and fears, their joys and immense challenges, and to pray with them for justice and peace that will bring healing to their lives and to this land."
Four senior bishops in the Church of England last year called on the British government to take urgent action against Israel’s escalating settler violence, warning it was undermining Palestinian life and threatening the Christian presence in the Holy Land.
“As the war in Gaza persists, the situation in the West Bank is in freefall,” they wrote, citing "increasing levels of settler violence and intimidation" – including attacks on land and churches in Taybeh, a Christian-majority town in the occupied West Bank.
In December 2025, Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, said in a sermon that he was stopped at checkpoints and told by "militias" that he could not visit Palestinian families in the West Bank.
"It was sobering for me to see this wall for real on my visit to the Holy Land, and we were stopped at various checkpoints and intimidated by Israeli militias who told us that we couldn't visit Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank," he said.
A delegation from the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine warned European Union officials last month that Israeli policies pose a serious threat to the survival of the historic Palestinian Christian presence in the region.
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