THE Bishop of Chester, the Rt Revd Peter Forster, and his staff team usually hold their annual residential meeting in a conventional English setting. This year, however, Bishop Forster took his two suffragans, the Bishop of Stockport, the Rt Revd Robert Atwell, and the Bishop of Birkenhead, the Rt Revd Keith Sinclair, together with his archdeacons, the diocesan secretary, and the Dean, the Very Revd Gordon McPhate, to Rome for four days.

Their agenda was to look in detail at the mission and development of the Church in the Chester diocese; but while they were there the ten-strong team visited the Venerable English College, as well as the Anglican Centre, where they met its director, Archbishop David Moxon, who is the Archbishop of Canterbury's representative to the Holy See. A highlight of the visit occurred during a papal audience in St Peter's Square, when the three Bishops were called to meet Pope Francis. They exchanged greetings with him, and the Pope asked them to pray for him.