On Nov. 9, the Anglican Bishop of Durham, Justin Welby, was officially appointed the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, succeeding the retiring Archbishop Dr. Rowan Williams. British Prime Minister David Cameron’s office formally announced the appointment, saying he had been the “overwhelming choice” of the British Crown Nominations Commission, a body made up of clergy and laypeople. He is expected to be enthroned in Canterbury Cathedral on March 21, 2013. “I feel a massive sense of privilege at being one of those responsible for the leadership of the church in a time of spiritual hunger,” said Bishop Welby shortly after the announcement.
Bishop Welby is known for his personal holiness and the ability to gently address difficult issues facing the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion. He will meet a plethora of challenging issues such as plummeting church attendance, divisions over the ordination of women as priests and bishops, ordaining practicing homosexuals and whether or not to approve gay wedding ceremonies. Bishop Welby is said to approve of the consecration of women bishops; however, he opposes the ordination of homosexual bishops. According to British media he supports the Church of England’s opposition to same-sex marriage, although he said 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.” He has also said, “I know I need to listen very attentively to the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) communities and examine my own thinking carefully and prayerfully.”
Bishop Welby was educated at St. Peter’s School, Seaford and Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He worked for 11 years in the oil industry, five of those years for the French oil company Elf Aquitaine based in Paris. In 1984 he became treasurer of the oil exploration group Enterprise Oil in London. He retired from oil business in 1989 when he felt called to the priesthood and began his formal seminary training. He was ordained a priest in 1992 and appointed bishop of Durham in 2011. He was inducted in the House of Lords where he sits on the Lords Spiritual bench. He was asked to join the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards in 2012.
His father’s ancestors were German Jews who had left their country to escape anti-Semitism. His mother’s family was English. His parents divorced and his mother remarried Charles Williams from the House of Lords, when his mother became Lady Williams of Elvel. He is married to Caroline Eaton and they had six children. In 1983, they experienced the tragic death of their seven-month-old daughter, Johanna, in a car crash in France. Of this chapter in his life he said, “It was a very dark time for my wife Caroline and myself but in a strange way it actually brought us closer to God.”
Bishop Welby has said that the Benedictine, Franciscan and Ignatian spirituality, as well as Roman Catholic social teaching, have most influenced his personal spiritual journey. In a recent press release the Church of England said he has “frequently said that the Roman Catholic approach to Christian social teaching, beginning with the encyclical of Leo XIII’s ‘Rerum Novarum,’ up to Pope Benedict XVI’s ‘Caritas Veritate,’ has greatly influenced his social teaching.” In describing himself within the wide range of Anglican spiritual tradition he identifies with the Anglican evangelical wing with tendencies toward the Catholic tradition.
Roman Catholic leaders in ecumenism and within the English Church reacted favorably at the choice of Bishop Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury. Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, informed the media that he would be attending the enthronement ceremony in March, when he will personally invite him to Rome for an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said, “As future Primate of the Church of England, I am sure that his ministry, like that of his predecessor, Archbishop Rowan Williams, will provide an important Christian witness to this country over the coming years.”
Father Joseph D. Wallace is coordinator, Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs, Diocese of Camden.
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