Archbishop Justin

On Friday it was announced that Rt Revd Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham for the past year, is to succeed Dr Rowan Williams, who retires in December, as Archbishop of Canterbury. It is a curiosity of the Church of England that a group of parishes can be left vacant for two years or even longer upon the resignation of an incumbent but a new Archbishop can be chosen before his predecessor retires.

That to one side, what do we know of Bishop Welby? Well he’s 56, an old Etonian and, prior to ordination, was an oil company executive. He also hails from an Evangelical background, the most powerful party in the modern day Church of England and the one with the greatest financial clout. With those credentials he could hardly be more ‘establishment’ than he is. It is also known that Bishop Welby favours the consecration of women as Bishops but, unsurprisingly, is opposed to gay marriage – something he has promised the world he will reflect prayerfully upon.

How will Bishop Welby shape up as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury? We don’t know. What we do know is that having spent only a year in the episcopate he’s hardly got experience on his side. However at 56 he has relative youth on his side and, unlike Dr Williams, is a practical man rather than an academic. Barring the unforeseen he should be in post for the next Lambeth Conference, although not the one after.

What we can say with certainty is that when he becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Welby will, arguably, have the most difficult ecclesiastical job in Christendom. Beyond his responsibilities for the Diocese of Canterbury and the southern province of the Church of England, he will have to try and be a spiritual father to the 77-million strong worldwide Anglican Communion. This last aspect of his role will be the hardest to discharge effectively by a country mile. Gone are the days when the Anglican Communion was united by a common liturgical tradition and an unchallenged consensus on human sexuality as well as the gender of those who should be admitted to Holy Orders. Assumptions which still hold good in the Global South have been challenged and, to some extent overturned in Britain, North America and Canada.

We can be very certain that Bishop Welby will not find the Archbishopric of Canterbury an easy role to fill by any means. One of his first tasks will be to try and deal with the fallout from the women–bishops Measure after the General Synod votes on it later this month, whichever way the vote goes. We do not envy him in discharging the task which lies ahead. Bishop Welby – Archbishop Welby as he will become – deserves and needs the prayers of all people of goodwill. We wish him well in the discharge of an undeniably difficult task.

Comments

According to The Telegraph, Welby supports "the Church of England's opposition to same-sex marriage", although he stated that he is
"always averse to the language of exclusion, when what we are called to is to love in the same way as Jesus Christ loves us."

I wasn't satisfied with 'reflect prayerfully upon' and found his words on the subject, which gave me some relief.
He's got a gift for diplomacy. Not too keen on Welby's motto though.

"Per ignem per gladium" (By fire, by sword)
 
I really don't mean to be glib or flip about it, but what's up with Anglican leaders having scary eyebrows?

Rowan Williams' eyebrows look almost demonic, and Robert Duncan's eyebrows are equally scary. They were both in a documentary I saw and between the two of them it looked like they had caterpillars on their eyes....
 

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