Church policy stops Archbishop of Canterbury joining 'Good Samaritan army' Organisers of the NHS "Winter friends" campaign, under which people sign a pledge to help isolated elderly people in practical ways, have recruited a series of well-known figures including Joanna Lumley, the actress, and Stephen Fry, the broadcaster, to support them. A senior aide wrote that the Archbishop received hundreds of requests to back campaigns adding: "All of them are important, most of them are central to the core beliefs of the Church of England. But the Archbishop cannot possibly support them all, not least because if he supported them all, his support would become meaningless, and for that reason we have to have a policy not to accept such requests. This does not for one moment mean that the Archbishop does not think that the campaign is important. Very clearly it is. We wish you well with the campaign. I'm sure Christians up and down the country will respond to your campaign as it chimes so very easily with Jesus's teaching to "love your neighbour as yourself." The Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Rev James Newcome, who speaks for the Church of England on health matters, is supporting the campaign on behalf of the church. The Archbishop has formal commitments to around 60 charities and other organisations as a patron, trustee or other office holder. But his decision earlier this year to turn down an invitation to become vice-patron of the RSPCA was widely seen as a snub for a charity which had attracted controversy amid claims it was becoming too "political." Lambeth Palace insisted that this was because of the sheer volume of the Archbishop's commitments. But a leaked memo circulated among the RSPCA's trustees later made clear that they were concerned that the decision could be a further public relations blow to the charity. There is no suggestion that the Archbishop rejected the Winter Friends campaign because of any concerns with it.