Evangelical activist or failed reformer? The triumphs and trials of Justin Welby
by Tim Wyatt, Premier Christianity:
He brought down predatory payday lenders, turbocharged evangelism and even welcomed refugees to live with him at Lambeth Palace. But unresolved issues of sexuality and safeguarding dogged Welby throughout his tenure. Tim Wyatt looks at the highs and lows of Justin Welby’s time as Archbishop of Canterbury
Justin Welby has formally laid down his crozier, ending his nearly 12-year stint as Archbishop of Canterbury.
His time in office will be forever marked by how it ended after he became the first archbishop to resign in disgrace, following a critical report over a safeguarding scandal. But his decade and more in office was hugely eventful and influential long before the John Smyth abuse story.
Welby entered Lambeth Palace as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013. He arrived as the head of the Church of England and global Anglican Communion as a total unknown, having only served as a bishop for six months before being plucked from relative obscurity to become the Primate of All England.
Top of his agenda at the beginning was the long-running effort to allow women to become bishops in the CofE. Welby deftly oversaw the shepherding of a reworked bill through the synod in record time, and by 2015 the first women were being consecrated as bishops. Today, there are eight women leading dioceses and a further 24 serving in more junior bishop roles, and the package of reforms (including, crucially, conscience provisions for conservatives opposed to women’s ordination) passed in Welby’s early years has mostly stood the test of time a decade later.
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