[4] In order to raise revenue for the church, whose parish covered just three acres (1.2  ha), a wooden porch was built over its exterior in the 16th century to house two shops.

An evangelical faction of the Church of England proposed to demolish St Ethelburga's in the aftermath but, following a sustained public outcry, it was rebuilt to its original plan, though much changed inside.

One of the more notable surviving elements is the curious 19th-century font,[8] which is inscribed with one of the longest known palindromes, written in Greek: ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ, which translates as "Cleanse [your] transgressions, not only [your] face".

[9] St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace is a non-profit charity which aims to build relationships across divisions of conflict, culture and religion.

Its work includes: a multi-faith conflict resilience programme[10] (faith leaders working together to become more intelligent in their responses to conflict); community reconciliation[11] (building a coalition for peace within the North and South Sudanese diaspora in London); the Narrative Practitioners Forum[12] (promoting the use of narrative and personal story for building empathy between people with different backgrounds); Re-awakening the Sacred[13] (a secular and spiritual multi-disciplinary enquiry into bringing a deeper sense of meaning into the earth, environment, leadership, economics and business etc.

); an MA in reconciliation at Winchester University;[14] and several strands of cultural exchange work mentoring young adults into social action leadership roles.