It is 10 months since the resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury. Now, finally, the Crown Nominations Commission is believed to have drawn up a shortlist of candidates, and a successor to Welby could be approved by October.

Theologian and author Andrew Graystone joins Damian Thompson to talk through what he calls ‘a weak list’ of potential candidates – weak because there are no obvious frontrunners and the Commission is choosing between ‘half a dozen equals’.

These range from the more talked-about Michael Beasley (Bath and Wells), Guli France-Dehqani (Chelmsford) and Rose Hudson-Wilson (Dover) [all pictured in the thumbnail] to the ‘others’: Stephen Lake (Salisbury), Martyn Snow (Leicester), Joanne Grenfell (St Edmundsbury and Ipswich), Sarah Mullallay (London), Rachel Treweek (Gloucester) and Ruth Worsely (interim bishop of Liverpool).

As Andrew tells Damian, factors dividing the candidates include their age, their views on LGBT inclusion and, crucially, their records on safeguarding issues. Also, note the presence of six women on this list. Could the Church be about to appoint the first female Primate of All England? And could this lead to disastrous controversy within the Anglican Communion – or is that body already so fractured that the Church of England will ignore its objections?

Anyone wondering why the process has taken so long – especially compared to the 17 days it took the Catholic Church to elect a new Pope this year – should check out our previous episode with Andrew here.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

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On Sunday the Catholic Church will acquire its first millennial saint, when Pope Leo XIV canonises someone who, if he were alive today, would be young enough to be his son.

Carlo Acutis, a ‘computer geek’ from a prosperous Italian family, died aged just 15 in 2006. In this episode of Holy Smoke, Damian Thompson talks to Mgr Anthony Figueiredo and the Italian-based journalist Nicholas Farrell about the extraordinary phenomenon of St Carlo, the miracles associated with him – and the scepticism they arouse – and a mean-spirited attack on him by one of the late Pope Francis’s closest advisers.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

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What links the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and St Peter's in Rome with the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and Canaanland in Ota, Nigeria? These are just some of the churches that Anglican priest and writer the Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie highlights in his new book Twelve Churches: An Unlikely History of the Buildings that made Christianity. The Anglican priest and writer joins Damian Thompson on Holy Smoke to explain how each Church not only tells a story but also raises a surprising dilemma for modern believers.

Fergus aims to tell the history of the Churches 'warts and all' and argues that, from Turkey to Britain, today’s Christians must be prepared to defend their religious spaces. Also, why is the Church of England one of the worst offenders when it comes to preserving its heritage?

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

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