Justin Welby: Outspoken Archbishop of Canterbury
At coronation of Charles, he became 1st archbishop in 70 years to crown British monarch
LONDON: As the Church of England’s most senior cleric, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s job largely resembled that of the 104 men who had served before him for the last nearly 1,500 years.
He christened the newest royal arrivals - Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis - and officiated at the wedding of their uncle Prince Harry.
At the funerals of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II he delivered sermons, while in 2023 at the coronation of Charles III he became the first archbishop in 70 years to crown a British monarch.
Unusually, he even re-interred a king - the medieval monarch Richard III - when his remains were found under a car park, 500 years after his death in battle.
But Welby, who resigned on Tuesday over claims of an abuse cover-up, was not just a ceremonial figure who also headed the 42 national and regional churches that make up the 85-million strong global Anglican communion.
He also used his high-profile position to criticise governments, speaking out about global issues such as climate change, conflict and poverty, corporate tax evasion, corruption and the treatment of refugees.
He even waded into Brexit, coming out as a “remainer” and criticising the anti-immigration rhetoric of “leavers” such as Nigel Farage during the divisive campaign about UK membership of the European Union.
More particularly, he was unafraid to apologise for the establishment that he represented, notably for institutional racism and its historic links to slavery.
His final criticism as he announced his resignation was for failing the victims of abuse.
“I hope this decision makes clear how serious the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church,” he said.
Oil man
Justin Portal Welby was born in London in 1956, appropriately for a future man of the cloth on January 6 - the festival of Epiphany that Christians celebrate to mark the appearance of Jesus to the Magi.
His mother, Jane, was a former personal secretary to Winston Churchill who married his father, Gavin, nine months earlier. The timing, he was later to discover, was significant.
In 2016, a paternity test revealed that he was not a “honeymoon baby” but his biological father was in fact Anthony Montague Browne, who also served Churchill as a private secretary and had a brief relationship with his mother.
His parents - both alcoholics - divorced in 1958 and he was brought up by Gavin Welby, a businessman of German-Jewish stock who traded whisky in the United States during the prohibition era, knew the Kennedys and had an affair with the actress Vanessa Redgrave.
He later became a professional backgammon player.
Welby was sent first to Eton College, the prestigious English private school that has produced 20 British prime ministers, then Cambridge University, where he discovered his faith and future direction.
First, though, he worked for 11 years in the oil industry, including five at the French company Elf Aquitaine - now part of TotalEnergies - in Paris, then for the exploration group Enterprise Oil plc in London where he focused on West Africa and North Sea projects.
He quit in 1989, studied theology and was ordained as a priest in 1993. His ascent was rapid and less than 10 years later he became Bishop of Durham, the Church of England’s fourth-most senior cleric.
Just a year into the role in 2012, the plain-speaking Welby, from the evangelical wing of the Church, emerged as a candidate to succeed Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury, who had struggled to keep conservatives and liberals together over issues such as same-sex marriage and female clergy.
Outreach
Welby, who admitted struggles with depression, largely took much of the brickbats about his frequent interventions in his stride, although admitted he was not immune to criticism, particularly on social media.
He was unafraid to leave the comfort and safety of the archbishop’s historic Lambeth Palace residence on the south bank of the River Thames in London in his quest for better understanding between people and faiths.
In 2014, he pushed for talks with Boko Haram militants in northeast Nigeria after they kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls, using his experience from his former life of hostage negotiations in the oil-rich southern delta region.
In 2022, he visited Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale war, calling it “a monumental act of evil”, and toured restive South Sudan in 2023 with Pope Francis.
There was innovation, too, when in 2020 he became the first Archbishop of Canterbury to hold a virtual service, delivering his Easter message to the faithful by video from his kitchen during COVID.
His pronouncements were hardly unexpected given his status, and never seriously threatened his position, but his liberal stance on same-sex marriage prompted 25 member churches to renounce his leadership.