Ambassador acts as Bishop’s commissary

THE British Ambassador to Turkey, Sir Dominick Chilcott, acting as the Bishop in Europe’s commissary, licensed the Revd Patrick Irwin as Chaplain (Interim Minister) of St Nicolas’s, Ankara, on Monday. This is said to be the first time that an Ambassador has officiated at a licensing, necessitated by the current lockdown. They are pictured in front of a portrait of King George V.

Iran inflicting ‘psychological torture’

THE husband of the British Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has accused the government in Iran of inflicting “psychological torture” on his wife by blocking her appeals at clemency. She has been detained in Iran since 2016, but was released temporarily in March owing to the coronavirus outbreak. She has been under house arrest at her parents’ home in Tehran since then, forced to wear an ankle tag and remain within 300 metres of the building (News, 20 March). Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has pressed the authorities to pardon her rather than return her to prison, and enable her to return to the UK.

Bishop survives virus after 18 days on life support

THE Anglican Bishop of Butere, in Kenya, the Rt Revd Dr Tim Wambunya, who contracted the coronavirus on his return to from the UK, has survived it. He spent 18 days on life support. He said that he had “lost most of my faculties. I got there and as soon as the doctors saw me all I heard was ‘ICU straight away’. They took me to ICU and, at that point, I think I blacked out.” On the 16th day, he began responding to treatment. He will spend another 40 days in hospital so that staff can attempt to mend the damage to his lungs.