As of this writing, it hasn’t been officially announced, but it seems reasonably certain that the Bishop of Durham, Justin Welby is to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
Welby was baptised at Holy Trinity Brompton, is supposedly a charismatic evangelical and, having been in business rather than academia, unlike his predecessor has his feet planted firmly on the ground. It is even possible to understand what he says without getting a headache.
All this seems like good news for theologically conservative Christians.
Yet, during his tenure as Dean of Liverpool, he authorised John Lennon’s atheist dirge, “Imagine” to be played on the church bells and gave his blessing to the Night of the Living Dead Halloween service.
While speaking to the TEC house of bishops in March 2012, he proclaimed himself disabused of the “myth that TEC is only liberal” and his enthusiasm for Indabas, either of which are enough to convict him of naivety, obsequiousness or both.
Giles Fraser likes him – not a good sign – and tells us that Welby thinks the Occupy movement was on to something and, in keeping with the Church of England’s obsession with rich bankers, is sitting on a commission to sort out corruption in the banking industry. Welby is a firm believer in “systemic or corporate sin”, a notion that, for a Christian, I think is rather peculiar insofar as the idea of Jesus dying for the sins of the Bank of England seems to me to be derisory.
The BBC informs us that, while Welby has defended the church’s right to oppose same sex marriage, “he has also been keen to accommodate opposing views expressed from a position of deeply held faith” – it doesn’t matter how wrong you are as long as you sincerely believe you are right, type of accommodation. Not a particularly encouraging thought for ACNA and ANiC who decided that the consecrating of a homosexual bishop and the blessing of same sex unions were not things that could be accommodated.
The harshest words I have seen in the mainstream media have come from a retired priest, Peter Mullen, who is convinced that Welby is one of the “Left-wing modernisers, devotees of all the secular fads such as diversity, social cohesion, political correctness and, of course, apostles of that sublime superstition, global warming.”
Time will tell, but on the face of it, it seems unlikely that those of us in North America who have left TEC and the ACoC will find a staunch ally in Welby. His speciality seems to be Reconciliation; the problem is, until there is repentance, a change of heart in at least one of the parties, it’s difficult to see how reconciliation is possible no matter how gifted the reconciler.
There is at least some good news: there are subtle intimations that the new Archbishop of Canterbury is a Christian.
