Bishop John Sentamu, then Archbishop of York, was the clear favourite with the Bishops of London, Liverpool and Bradford among others in the running.

One of the front-runners said to me: "You mustn't believe the stories in the press about bishops jockeying for position. It's more like a group of men sitting around a table, passing a revolver from one to another, knowing that one of them is going to get the bullet".

On 7 November 2012, both Ladbrokes and William Hill suddenly suspended betting on the new archbishop. They had noticed a "very significant move" in the betting towards a rank outsider. Justin Welby, the Bishop of Durham, hadn't even been at the table.

Welby had been a bishop for less than a year, and some of his five children hadn't even moved schools from his previous posting when his new appointment as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury was announced.

Some time in the coming weeks, Welby will announce that he is leaving Lambeth Palace after 12 turbulent years in the post.

The law requires him to step down by 6 January 2026 when he will be 70 - though an extension of 12 months would be possible in exceptional circumstances. Soon the betting is likely to open on his successor.

What the Archbishop of Canterbury does

The winner (or loser) in the contest (for the archbishop's role) will inherit not one but four jobs.

He or she will be the Ordinary of the Diocese of Canterbury, the Primate of All England, a member of the House of Lords and the spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

A review of the roles in 2001 by Lord (Douglas) Hurd concluded that the job had become unmanageable and needed to be reformed.

His main suggestion was that the Archbishop of Canterbury should be freed up to concentrate on his role as leader of the Anglican Communion around the world, with the Archbishop of York leading on matters in the UK.

Welby might have enjoyed that role. Insiders say that he is rarely caught smiling except when he is out of the country. But none of Lord Hurd's proposals were implemented. As a result, Justin Welby has looked exhausted and stressed for most of his years in office.

Part of the problem is that although the archbishop has considerable convening power and a public voice that can garner headlines positive and negative, he has almost no execu­tive power in the Church.

There's no such thing as an archiepiscopal encyclical letter. The vast majority of Anglican worshippers live outside the UK, but the Archbishop of Canterbury can't even tell other English bishops what to do, let alone those in the rest of the world.

Welby's successor

Some time in the next 12 months, a Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) will convene to choose Welby's successor. It will be made up of the Archbishop of York with another senior bishop, and six members of the General Synod.

They will be joined by three representatives of the Canterbury Diocese and five overseas members chosen from the regions of the worldwide communion.

At Welby's ­initiative, there has been a reduction in the representation from Canterbury and an increase in those from the rest of the world - a move aimed to give the international role greater legitimacy. There will also be a voting chair appointed by Sir Keir Starmer.

In the end, the CNC will make its recommendation to the prime minister who will convey it to the King, who makes the appointment.

In theory, the next archbishop could come from outside England - but that's not likely.

However godly and competent a candidate might be, bringing a bishop in from Africa or the United States and bestowing an automatic seat in the House of Lords together with the job of crowning a future monarch wouldn't help the Church's credibility.

Age matters. If the next archbishop is to have time to make an impact, he or she probably needs to be some fifty years of age.

That narrows the field considerably. The hugely capable Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, might be an interim candidate, but he will be 67 by the time the removal vans pull up at Lambeth Palace.

And anyway, he would hate it. Gender matters too. Rachel Treweek, the Bishop of Gloucester, and Helen-Ann Hartley, the Bishop of Newcastle, are hugely effective. But large parts of the shaky Anglican Communion still see women in leadership roles as ­anathema.

Views on sexuality matter

It may be incomprehensible to the majority of the population, but the decision is likely to hinge on the candidates' views on sexuality. Gay sex is by far the most neuralgic issue in the Church of England.

Even a mild comment from Welby in answer to a question by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart in their podcast The Rest is Politics, suggesting that he and the majority of bishops believed that "all sexual activity should be within a committed relationship … whether it's straight or gay", called down the ire of conservative church leaders across England and around the world.

In recent months, the CNC has been deadlocked over the issue and has failed to appoint new bishops in key dioceses such as Carlisle and Ely.

It is hard to see how Canterbury will be any different, especially when a two-thirds majority of voting members of the CNC is required to make a recommendation. Just six voters could block a candidate.

When and if an appointment is made, be it conservative or liberal, it will be hugely divisive.

If we needed an indication of just how deep and personal this rift is, consider the Alliance, a confederation of conservative networks within the Church of England who affirm what they regard as the "orthodox" teaching of the Church on sexuality.

The Alliance has links throughout the Anglican Communion, not least through the founder of the Alpha Course, the Rev. Nicky Gumbel. Ironically, Gumbel was a key mentor to Welby from his conversion onwards, and was vicar of the church that sent him for ordination.

It is highly likely that Gumbel had a significant role in Welby's ­meteoric rise, and it is equally likely that he will play a role in brokering the appointment of his successor.

Part of the power of the Alliance lies in the threat to withhold funds if the Church moves further in a liberal direction. The Church of England may literally not be able to afford to appoint a progressive archbishop.

Which brings us to the figures gathered around the table this time, uneasily passing the revolver. Read more

• Andrew Graystone is a theologian and advocate for victims of church-based abuse.

Friday's announcement at the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England came from the Global South orthodox bishops as they pressed for re-affirmation of traditional teaching on marriage.

The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) claims to represent 75 percent of the Anglican Communion.

They declared their position a day after 100 people, including twelve bishops, joined a walk at the Conference's campus venue. The walk aimed to show solidarity with LGBTQ people.

Even before the conference began, documents referring to gay relationships were already causing tempers to flare.

The GSFA says it will table its own resolution at the conference. It will reaffirm Lambeth Resolution 1.10 as the Church's official teaching on marriage and sexuality.

That resolution was formally passed at the Lambeth Conference in 1998. It describes marriage as a life-long commitment between a man and a woman. Same-sex unions are therefore outlawed, the GSFA says.

The 2022 Lambeth Conference organisers have got it wrong, the GSFA adds.

They have failed to recognise the resolution "is not just about sex and marriage".

Rather, it's "fundamentally about the authority of the Bible which Anglicans believe to be central to faith and order".

GSFA chair Archbishop Justin Badi says the GSFA also wants the sanctions imposed on provinces that ordain bishops in same-sex relationships. Provinces allowing same-sex marriages should also be sanctioned.

The Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is among them, he says.

Badi says the Communion has been "for far too long driven by the views of the West". It has ignored voices from the Global South.

"Today, in Canterbury, we may be ‘gathered together' but we most certainly cannot ‘walk together'".

For that to happen, provinces which have gone against scripture — and the will of the consensus of the bishops — must "repent and return to orthodoxy," he says.

The row over same-sex marriage erupted on the eve of the conference.

The draft conference documents said "It is the mind of the Anglican Communion as a whole that same-gender marriage is not permissible."

Protests from supporters of same-sex marriage followed.

The documents were then amended to note differences among Anglican provinces.

The statement now notes while many provinces ban same-gender marriages, others have a different view.

Besides the 650 bishops from around the globe attending the conference in person, hundreds of others have boycotted it.

They are protesting the support from some parts of the Communion for same-sex marriage.

Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, says the conference is not a synod or a legislative body.

Rather, it is a place where bishops could come together.

While Resolution 1.10 is "still very much part of the Anglican Communion, there's deep division," he says.

"It will need to be decided in each province and diocese."

The Conference - the first to be held in 14 years - will continue after it ends on Friday, when bishops return to their provinces.

Source

• Religion News Service

In a significant moment for relations between the Anglican and Catholic Church, the interview was recorded on the Archbishop's mobile phone during a recent meeting in Rome.

The recording was made for Thy Kingdom Come, a global movement of prayer between Ascension and Pentecost on June 9, and will be played at a major rally of Christians taking place in Trafalgar Square on Pentecost. Read more

The "unprecedented" spiritual retreat, which finished yesterday, was described by Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti as a "propitious occasion for reflection and prayer".

He says it offered "an occasion for encounter and reconciliation, in a spirit of respect and trust, to those who in this moment have the mission and the responsibility to work for a future of peace and prosperity for the South Sudanese people."

The leaders representing the South Sudanese civil authorities were the members of the Presidency of the Republic of South Sudan. They will assume positions of great national responsibility in May. They were joined by eight members of the South Sudan Council of Churches, representing South Sudan's ecclesiastical authorities.

South Sudan - the world's youngest country - has spent most of its eight years in a state of civil war. A peace deal brokered last year by the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the nation's Churches is fragile.

Organisers of this week's retreat say they hope it will bring the parties together and aid efforts at reconciliation.

Prior to the retreat, a spokesperson for the Archbishop of Canterbury said the joint Anglican-Catholic initiative "could be a step on a journey .. to build confidence and trust between parties and give them spiritual nourishment."

Participants at the retreat were given a Bible signed by Pope Francis, Archbishop Justin Welby and the former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, John Chalmers.

The Bibles included the message: "Seek that which unites. Overcome that which divides".

Source

• Anglican Communion News Service
• Vatican News
• Image: Anglican Communion News Service

He made the statement while giving evidence on the second-last day of a clergy sex abuse inquiry.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is looking into the Diocese of Chichester, where dozens of clergy have been accused of abuse.

Welby said he could not read the transcripts from the hearing without being moved and ashamed.

"The apologies are fine, but you have got to find ways of making it different and we have got to do it as soon as possible."

In his opinion, the Church's discipline process for accused priests was "not fit for purpose" and needed reform.

"The damage it does to victims and survivors, the damage it does to people against whom a complaint is made, is extraordinary," he said.

When he was asked about the lack of responsibility taken by individuals for failings in the church, he said "tribalism in the Church of England" had allowed paedophile clerics to thrive.

Welby told the inquiry he has "seen afresh the insanity of clericalism and of a deferential culture" within the church.

Reforms he is instigating include performance reviews for bishops and archbishops. He is in the midst of a review of his own performance at present.

In his view, psychosocial or psychometric assessments should be used when selecting people for ordination.

"If it can be demonstrated that [such tests] will be helpful in identifying pathologies that are likely to lead to behaviours, then it is worth doing.

"You want to [use these tests to] pick up people who are not going to use power well or who are going to abuse it," he said.

He said bishops and other members of the clergy were now given training, which made it "quite clear" that if a safeguarding issue was not reported it was a disciplinary matter.

He said clergy who abuse children can never be trusted again, even if they confess or repent.

Welby also said the culture of parish churches needed to change, so safeguarding failures were as unacceptable as drink-driving.

In this way "if anything is seen as untoward … everyone who knows, who is around, says 'this isn't right and I'm going to do something about it'."
Source

• The Tablet
• The Telegraph
• BBC
• Image: ITV.com

The Archbishop must grant a licence for marriages not held in parish churches.

Since 2002, following a ruling by the General Synod, divorced people have been allowed to marry in the Church of England "in exceptional circumstances".

Couples must ask the minister who is to conduct the service whether they are prepared to let the marriage go ahead, and clergy may refuse on grounds of conscience to officiate.

The Archbishop of Canterbury usually presides over Royal weddings, although whether he will officiate has not been confirmed.

However, Welby says he is "absolutely delighted" about the forthcoming nuptials.

"Marriage is a special and joyous commitment, one that Jesus celebrated with friends at the wedding in Cana (where Jesus turned water into wine).

"I am so happy that Prince Harry and Ms Markle have chosen to make their vows before God.

"I wish them many years of love, happiness and fulfilment and ask that God blesses them throughout their married life".

Although she is not a Catholic and is said to identify as a Protestant, Markle was educated at a Catholic school.

According to several news sources, she will be both baptised and confirmed before she marries Prince Harry.

The date and place of the wedding has not been announced, although Kensington Palace has said it will take place in the spring.

Markle's first marriage took place in September 2011, to film producer Trevor Engelson.

Shortly before she and Engleson married, Markle's role in the TV drama Suits was confirmed and she began commuting between LA and Toronto to meet filming schedules.

The couple separated in early 2013 and divorced in August, citing irreconcilable differences.

Engelson kept the marital home and Markle moved to Toronto.

Source

• Stuff
• Daily Mail
• Vogue
• Image: Billboard

The Vatican confirmed that although it has been looking into the possibility of Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, visiting South Sudan, it has decided it's too dangerous to visit the country at present.

The Church of England has not yet said whether Welby will visit the country on his own.

He and Francis had planned to use their trip to help raise the profile of the people living in the war-torn country and to help them find peace.

South Sudan is in a bad way, reports show.

After gaining independence in 2011, the country has suffered violent outbreaks since December 2013.

That was when fighting followed a dispute between President Kiir, who is Dinka, and former vice-president Machar, who is Nuer.

The Dinka and Nuer are South Sudan's two largest ethnic groups.

An ethnic war followed, which continues to this day. The United Nations says the South Sudanese government forces' "ethnic cleansing" is "teetering on the edge of genocide".

About 300,000 people have died and three million have been displaced.

Around half the country's 10 million people are on the brink of starvation.

Source

• International Business Times
• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Image: CNN.com

Welby and the British Home Office took the initiative in an attempt to encourage members of the public, community groups, faith groups, charities and businesses to sponsor refugee families resettling in the UK.

The full community sponsorship scheme is intended to help the government fulfil its commitment to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees in the UK before 2020.

About 1,800 refugees have been resettled so far, less than 10% of the total.

Over the past year there have been numerous ad hoc and sometimes chaotic efforts by community groups and members of the public to provide aid to refugees waiting to come to the UK.

Donations of food, clothing, books and household goods, plus offers of accommodation in spare rooms, have overwhelmed social action groups.

Launching the Syrian refugee scheme at Lambeth Palace, the home secretary, Amber Rudd, said: "The response of the British public to the refugee crisis has been one of overwhelming generosity and many have been moved to make kind offers of assistance."

She said the sponsorship scheme was "a groundbreaking development for resettlement in the UK and I wholeheartedly encourage organisations that can help to offer their support".

Source

• The Guardian
• Image: Wazobians.com

The question "Who do you say I am?", in reference to Jesus, was put to Mr Trump by evangelical commentator Cal Thomas in the US.

The exchange was published in transcript form on Mr Thomas's website.

After Mr Thomas put the question a second time, Mr Trump gave the following answer.

"Jesus to me is somebody I can think about for security and confidence," Mr Trump said.

"Somebody I can revere in terms of bravery and in terms of courage and, because I consider the Christian religion so important, somebody I can totally rely on in my own mind."

The first time the question as to who Jesus is was put to Mr Trump, he stumbled a little.

"I will be asking for forgiveness, but hopefully I won't have to be asking for much forgiveness," he began.

"As you know, I am Presbyterian and Protestant."

He then said it was "deplorable" Syrian Muslims could come to the US so easily compared to
Syrian Christians, before concluding, "I'm going to treat my religion, which is Christian, with great respect and care".

The exchange comes ahead of Mr Trump's speech to 500 evangelical leaders in New York later this month.

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Canterbury has agreed with Pope Francis that Mr Trump's plan for building an anti-immigrant wall is not Christian.

Archbishop Justin Welby was asked by a UK MP whether he thought a policy of treating an entire religion as suspect and banning them from a county - a reference to Mr Trump's policy on Muslims - was unchristian.

The archbishop said in reply: "It is certainly not a Christian thing to do nor is it a rational thing to do."

Sources

• Religion News Service
• Telegraph
• Cal Thomas
• Image: Washington Times

Archbishop Justin Welby said in an interview that if one of his five children asked for his blessing for a gay marriage, he would pray with them and attend the ceremony.

The Daily Mail reported that he also refused to say that a gay relationship was "sinful or inappropriate", insisting he would "always love " his children, whatever their sexuality.

The interview was done by UK Justice Secretary Michael Gove and it appeared in The Spectator magazine.

Two of the archbishop's children are married to spouses of the opposite sex.

Same-sex marriage was legalised in the UK in 2013, but the law stated that gay weddings could not happen in Church of England churches.

During parliamentary debate leading up to the law change, Archbishop Welby warned the legislation would "weaken" the idea of the "'family in its normal sense".

Asked by Mr Gove how he would react if one of his children asked for his blessing for a same-sex relationship, Archbishop Welby said: "Would I pray for them together? You bet I would, absolutely."

"Would I pray with them together? If they wanted me to. If they had a civil service of marriage, would I attend? Of course I would."

Mr Gove challenged him on the views of some evangelicals and asked if he would tell his child that while he loved them "their relationship was sinful or inappropriate".

But Archbishop Welby hit back: "I would say, 'I will always love you, full stop. End of sentence, end of paragraph.' Whatever they say, I will say I always love them."

Mr Gove stated that Archbishop Welby has helped to change the "caricature" that the Church of England is "morally relativist, ethically vague, painfully politically correct and timorously unassertive".

Sources

• Daily Mail
• The Telegraph
• The Spectator
• Image: The Express

Bishop George Bell of Chichester, who died in 1958, sexually assaulted a child in the 1940s and 1950s.

The Church of England has issued a formal apology to the victim, who wishes to remain anonymous.

A legal claim for compensation has been settled.

The victim first came forward in 1995, but the complaint was effectively ignored by the then-Bishop of Chichester, Eric Kemp, who died in 2009.

It was not until the victim contacted the office of the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Justin Welby, two years ago that the allegations were finally investigated properly.

Bishop Bell is revered for his role as a crucial ally of the German underground resistance movement under the Nazis and later as a peacemaker as well as a pioneer of the ecumenical movement.

He was a close friend of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the heroic German theologian.

He also counted Gandhi and Nehru among his friends and helped lay the foundations for the thaw in relations between Anglicans and Roman Catholics before Second Vatican Council.

He had close contacts with Cardinal Giovanni Montini, who later became Pope Paul VI.

The current Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, has written to the victim to express his "deep sorrow".

Bishop Bell has an annual commemoration, the Anglican equivalent of a feast day, on October 3, the anniversary of his death.

A spokesman for the Church said would now be up to the General Synod to formally remove him from the calendar of commemorations.

But the spokesman signalled that Bishop Bell is unlikely ever to be commemorated again. The commemoration is optional.

Another former Chichester CofE bishop, Bishop Peter Ball, was jailed earlier this month for abusing 19 young men.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• Image: The Guardian

A spokesman for Archbishop Justin Welby noted that Jesus was a refugee.

The spokesman said a four-bedroom cottage at Lambeth Palace in London could house a "family or two", adding that the archbishop would pay for this "out of his own discretionary fund".

The archbishop has been considering the move for "a while", his office said, and the cottage is currently being redecorated.

Continue reading

The invitation to the primates from the Archbishop of Canterbury will bring together a number of church heads who have not spoken directly to each other for more than a decade.

As one way of dealing with such a rift, Archbishop Justin Welby reportedly wants the primates to scale the Anglican Communion back into a loosely linked organisation.

Aides have likened this to "moving into separate bedrooms" rather than full-scale divorce.

Continue reading

On Friday, the House of Commons will debate the Assisted Dying (No 2) Bill, put forward by Labour's Rob Marris.

The bill would allow patients judged as having no more than six months to live, and who had a "clear and settled intention" to end their lives, to be prescribed a lethal dose of drugs.

Two doctors and a family court judge would have to assess the patient's diagnosis and prognosis, and check that he or she was mentally competent to make a judgment, free of coercion.

The patient would then have to administer the lethal medication themselves, with a healthcare professional present.

In an extraordinary show of unity on Sunday, the heads of Britain's Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh communities wrote a joint letter to every MP urging them to throw out the assisted dying bill.

The faith leaders, including Cardinal Vincent Nichols, stated their main concern is pastoral.

"The bill has the potential to affect the lives of a great number of people whose circumstances make them vulnerable in different ways," the faith leaders wrote.

"If passed, it will directly affect not only those who are terminally ill and who wish to end their lives, but also their families and friends and the health professionals who care for them.

"It also has the potential to have a significant impact on other vulnerable individuals: those who believe that they have become burdens to family and carers and feel under pressure within themselves to ‘do the decent thing' and, tragically, those who might be pressured by others to seek a medically assisted death."

Already burdened, vulnerable people should not have to bear the added burden of having to consider ending their lives prematurely, the faith leaders wrote.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Justin Welby, said Britain would cross "a legal and ethical Rubicon" if the bill becomes law.

Sources

• The Guardian
• The Guardian
• Image: Gov.uk

Archbishop Justin Welby told faith leaders earlier this month that Britain's religious communities must do more to provide an alternative to extremism which gives young people a "purpose in life".

He also warned against being too quick to brand people and groups with strong views on religious matters as extremists.

Nothing will ever be achieved if the only conversations which take place involve "nice people talking to nice people about being nice", he said.

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Preaching at an evensong service in New York in January, Archbishop Welby said Jesus' life "challenges every assumption" about society.

"He does not permit us to accept a society in which the weak are excluded - whether because of race, wealth, gender, ability, or sexuality.

"Nor did he permit us and does he permit us to turn religion into morality.

"The old sermons that we have heard so often in England, which I grew up with, which if you boiled them down all they effectively said was: ‘Wouldn't the world be a nicer place if we were all a bit nicer?'

"That is the kind of moral claptrap that Jesus does not permit us to accept."

He told the congregation "we are to get involved, we are to get our hands dirty".

But too often churches had just "circled the wagons in order to keep the enemy out".

Archbishop Welby also cautioned against Christians making the "mistake of identification with the world as all there is".

This is "a mistake we often make today in the way we speak and live".

Speaking about deprivation and inequality, he detailed his experiences in Liverpool, where he served as Dean of the Anglican cathedral for four years, insisting it was imperative for churches to be involved in their communities.

Archbishop Welby added that Christians are to be "caught up in a revolution of expectation and of implementation".

"Were it not for the fact that [Jesus] is in title Prince of Peace, and lived out his mission in service and foot-washing, ending it in crucifixion and resurrection, this would be a call to violent revolution; but even that option is removed from our hands by the way in which he lived his life and calling."

The Archbishop was visiting New York to speak at the "'Creating the Common Good" conference organised by the Trinity Institute.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• Christian Today
• Lambeth Palace
• Image: The Guardian