The General Secretary of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA), Canon Grace Kaiso, and the former Executive Officer to the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Christine Codner, are amongst 30 people to be honoured with a Lambeth Award today. Amongst the recipients are six people who received an award for services to the Church of England. Endeavours in the field of Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation, Community Service, Worship, Education and Scholarship, Evangelism and Witness, and Ecumenism were also recognised. Most of the awards were presented this afternoon at Lambeth Palace. The Bishop of Egypt, Mouneer Anis (Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation) and the Revd Canon Joanna Udal (Anglican Communion) were presented with their awards earlier this year.

Christine Codner began working for the London-based Anglican Communion Office in 1983 and spent 34 years there before retiring last year. Her career has spanned three Lambeth Conferences, four Secretaries General, and four Archbishops of Canterbury. She has supported many Primates’ Meetings and almost all Anglican Consultative Council meetings. Her “dedication, commitment, and invaluable service to the Anglican Communion have been unfailing,” the Award citation reads. “The associations and friendships which she has developed over the years in the ACC office and during her Communion travels mean she simply is for very many people the face and the telephone voice of the Anglican Communion Office.”

The Revd Canon Grace Kaiso has led CAPA since 2009, helping it to empower and build the capacity of the Anglican Churches in Africa and steering CAPA to become a force for unity and holistic mission in Africa with influence across the Anglican Communion. “He has been a remarkable leader in conflict resolution and peace-building in Africa,” his Citation says. “He has worked tirelessly with regional faith leaders in South Sudan, seeking to build a framework of Churches and faith-based organisations to contribute to the peace-building effort. Before joining CAPA, he was also a member of the inter-religious council in Uganda, mobilising Ugandans to work for harmony, unity, and peace. He was also the Executive Secretary of the Uganda Joint Christian Council, during which time he ably positioned himself as a champion of good governance, democracy, human rights, and environmental causes.”

The recipients of this year’s Lambeth Awards come from Africa, the Far East and the UK.

Among the other recipients are Canon Dr Paula Gooder, who was recognised for her “biblical scholarship and shining example of service to the Church of England”; and the Revd Dr John Bell, who was recognised for his “outstanding Christian witness through hymn-writing, broadcasting and social action.”

Two Muslim leaders also received awards, including Imam Mohammed Mahmoud, who was recognised for his “courageous and selfless intervention” to prevent violence against a driver who had run down worshippers near a mosque in Finsbury Park in June 2017. The worshippers were giving assisting Makram Ali, a man who had collapsed near a bus stop near the mosque, when Darren Osborne deliberately drove into them. Mr Ali died of multiple injuries and eight other people were injured. In February, Osborne was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murder and attempted murder. Today, the Imam received the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation.

The Lambeth Awards were launched by Archbishop Justin Welby in 2016 to recognise outstanding service in different fields, including those of the Archbishop’s ministry priorities of prayer and the Religious life; reconciliation and peace-building; and evangelism and witness.

Speaking at the ceremony, Archbishop Justin expressed the thanks of the Church and the wider community for the recipients’ outstanding contributions in their fields; saying that he hoped the world at large will “see what these people have done and understand that, in their different fields, they show forth values which are our values, Gospel values of love for humanity, reconciliation and selfless service; and, more widely, values common to all people of good will – values of common decency and a refusal to bow to false gods.”

He said: “I present these awards, on behalf of the Church of England and of the Anglican Communion – but also, I hope, on behalf of people of good will everywhere – for two reasons. These two reasons are distinct but complementary.

“Firstly, I want to express the thanks of the Church and of the wider community for the outstanding contributions which these people have each made in their own fields. I realise that they have not sought such an expression of thanks but that is precisely why I think it so important make this public gesture of gratitude.

“Secondly, I want the world at large to recognise and acknowledge the work of all the recipients of these awards, and to hold up these people as examples to be followed. I want others to see what these people have done and understand that, in their different fields, they show forth values which are our values, Gospel values of love for humanity, reconciliation and selfless service; and, more widely, values common to all people of good will - values of common decency and a refusal to bow to false gods.”

The recipients of the Lambeth Awards in 2018 are:

Cross of St Augustine for services to the Anglican Communion

• Christine Codner
• Canon Grace Kaiso
• Canon Joanna Udal

The Canterbury Cross for Services to the Church of England

• Canon Rupert Bursell QC
• Professor Michael Gilbert Clarke
• Prebendary John Collins
• Margaret Holness
• Andrew Nunn
• Mrs Rona Orme

The Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation

• Bishop Mouneer Anis (Egypt)
• Bishop Paul Butler (Durham)
• Imam Mohammed Mahmoud
• Chaudry Abdul Rashid
• Canon Dr Andrew Smith

The Langton Award for Community Service

• Elizabeth Baxter
• Heather Black
• John Kirkby
• Bishop Alastair Redfern

The Thomas Cranmer Award for Worship

• Dr John Bell
• Bernadette Farrell
• Dr Geonyong Lee

The Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship

• Paula Gooder
• Professor Tom McLeish 
• Bishop Robert Garshong Allotey Okine (former Archbishop of West Africa)

The Alphege Award for Evangelism and Witness

• Janet Knox
• Prebendary Dick Lucas
• Dr Anne Richards
• Canon Roger Simpson

The Lambeth Cross for Ecumenism

• Dr Renier Adriaan Koegelenberg
• Dean John Mann