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A Good Choice at Canterbury.

The recent announcement that Justin Welby is to be the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury was given a very positive response by most sections of the secular press. His involvement in the Church began when he started worshipping at Holy Trinity Brompton. He was baptized as an adult and came into the ministry after he and his wife suffered the tragic death of their young child. Holy Trinity Brompton is a London church that has seen massive spiritual and numerical growth for very many years, bringing renewed life and vision to churches in several areas. It has also pioneered the Alpha Course, an introduction to the Christian Faith which has now extended across the world and to most Christian denominations.

Justin Welby was ordained in 1992, Ironically, two years earlier doubts about his suitability had been expressed in a preliminary interview with the then Bishop of Kensington. He told our future Archbishop; “There is no place for you in the modern Church of England. I have interviewed a thousand candidates for ordination and you do not come in the top thousand!”

Justin who has been Bishop of Durham for a year will be ‘enthroned’ Archbishop of Canterbury on March 21st.The tasks facing the new Archbishop are legion. Not least, how the Church can respond to an age of increasing religious scepticism and secularism. I believe the new Archbishop will bring a renewed sense of vision and optimism to the Church of England, a Church which in recent times has become too preoccupied with the gloomy politics of decline. “I am utterly optimistic about the future of the Church” he said at his recent press conference. “We will certainly get things wrong, but the grace of God is far greater than our biggest failures. We will also certainly get much right and do so already”

Welcome him! Support him! Pray for him!

Our New Archbishop