Two Irish bishops are to receive Lambeth Awards, announced in London by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby this week.

Retired Church of Ireland Bishop of Raphoe Ken Good and current Catholic Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown are to be granted the honours. Awards will be presented to 32 people internationally for their outstanding contributions to church life and to wider society.

The award to Bishop Good was “for giving strategic leadership to the local church to engage fully with the community, throughout his ordained ministry, most of which was in the complex community of Northern Ireland.”

Bishop McKeown’s award was for making “an exceptional contribution to social cohesion in and around Derry and has been an unstinting example of the Gospel values of charity and love of one’s neighbour.”

He and Bishop Good had “developed a close friendship” and “together they made a conscious commitment to work together publicly as often as possible.” This was “not only during the Troubles but in the more recent violence which witnessed the tragic murder of the journalist Lyra McKee,” the citation said.