Justin Welby
- In full:
- Justin Portal Welby
Who is Justin Welby?
Why did Justin Welby resign as archbishop of Canterbury?
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Justin Welby (born January 6, 1956, London, England) was the 105th archbishop of Canterbury, serving from 2013 until his resignation in 2024. He was the leader of the Anglican Communion, the worldwide body of Anglican Christian churches in communion with the see of Canterbury.
(Read Archbishop Justin Welby’s essay for Britannica on the importance of reconciliation.)
Early life
Welby’s parents, Gavin Welby and Jane Welby (née Portal), divorced when Justin Welby was three years old. Both were then alcoholics, a situation that made his childhood difficult. Until her marriage in 1955, Portal had worked as a personal secretary of Prime Minister Winston Churchill at 10 Downing Street. In April 2016 Welby announced that a DNA test had confirmed that his biological father was not Gavin Welby but Anthony Montague Browne, Churchill’s last private secretary.
Justin Welby studied at Eton College and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned a master’s degree in history and law (1978). Upon graduation he worked as a financial executive in the petroleum industry, first for the French corporation Elf Aquitaine (1978–83), then for Elf’s U.K. arm (1983–84), and then for Enterprise Oil (1984–89). While working in France he was a member of the council of St. Michael’s Church in Paris, and after returning to London he was a lay leader at Holy Trinity Brompton, an influential evangelical Anglican parish. In 1989 he left industry to enter seminary, and three years later he graduated with a bachelor’s degree and a diploma in theology (enabling him to pursue professional work in ministry) from St. John’s College, Durham. There he demonstrated a particular interest in banking and corporate ethics as well as in conflict resolution and reconciliation. His diploma dissertation at St. John’s was subsequently the basis of an influential pamphlet titled Can Companies Sin? (1992).
Church life
Welby’s first service as a cleric in the Church of England was in Coventry diocese, where he was ordained a deacon in 1992 and a priest in 1993. He served as rector of St. James Church, Southam, and St. Michael and All Angels, Ufton (1995–2002), reviving both churches and expanding their congregations. He then served as a canon (2002–07) and subdean (2005–07) of Coventry Cathedral, where he was also codirector of the cathedral’s International Centre for Reconciliation. In that position he worked with Anglican missions aimed at resolving conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, often under the threat of violence. For example, in 2005 he helped negotiate a peaceful settlement between Shell Oil Company and the Ogoni people of Nigeria amid claims that Shell had polluted local groundwater and had conspired with the Nigerian army to suppress protests violently. He also met frequently with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and he was instrumental in reopening the Anglican church in Baghdad.
In 2006 Welby became priest-in-charge at Holy Trinity Coventry, the city’s largest Anglican church, and in 2007 he was named dean of the largest cathedral in England, Liverpool Cathedral, where he expanded outreach to the poor and to asylum seekers. Meanwhile, he continued to work on reconciliation issues overseas and to write on ethical and financial matters. He became bishop of Durham in 2011. In 2012 he served on the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, advising lawmakers on matters of corporate ethics and assisting in the investigation of banking standards in the wake of that year’s LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) scandal, in which it was revealed that major British banks had manipulated a key benchmark for interest rates worldwide.
Archbishop of Canterbury
In 2012 Welby was elected archbishop of Canterbury, succeeding Rowan Williams. Williams’s tenure had been marked by a growing rift within the Anglican Communion between theological liberals and traditionalists within the United Kingdom and abroad. Traditionalists—particularly in the growing Global South (the Anglican provinces in Africa, Latin America, and Asia)—vehemently rejected increased calls for the ordination of women and openly homosexual bishops and for recognition of same-sex marriages. New Anglican churches backed by traditionalists formed in North and South America and appealed for recognition by the Anglican Communion, thus directly challenging the archbishop of Canterbury’s standing and authority.
Welby’s meteoric rise to leadership of the Anglican Communion inspired hope that he would be able to reconcile traditionalists and liberals. He spoke in favor of gay rights but affirmed the Church of England’s opposition to same-sex marriage. His election was confirmed in February 2013, and he was installed the following month. At his installation ceremony Welby became the first archbishop of Canterbury to be enthroned by a woman cleric. In his inaugural sermon he evoked the courage to face up to the work of reconciliation, and at his first Easter sermon as archbishop a week later he called upon the faithful to acknowledge the “fallibility” of all human beings, including religious and political leaders.
Despite the hope for church unity, the Church of England’s decision in 2023 to permit the blessing of same-sex couples in civil marriages led to intense strife across the Anglican Communion. A number of churches within the communion claimed that the Church of England had departed from orthodox faith. Welby’s “fitness to lead” was seriously challenged by the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), which represents conservative Anglican churches in dozens of countries. In an effort to stave off an irreparable breakdown, Welby stated that he personally will not bless same-sex marriages. However, in a historic decision, 12 GSFA archbishops—representing about a quarter of the 42 member churches of the Anglican Communion—withdrew their recognition of the archbishop of Canterbury and denied Welby as their spiritual head, deepening the rift between traditionalists and liberals and bringing the church closer to schism.
As the archbishop of Canterbury, Welby officiated at the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on September 19, 2022, and in his sermon praised her decades of service to God and country. On May 6, 2023, he presided over the coronation of King Charles III. The new coronation liturgy, commissioned by Welby with the theme “called to serve,” welcomed people of all faiths and included prayers and hymns in the Welsh, Scots Gaelic, and Irish languages. It was the first coronation service to feature female bishops, and, in recognition of the diverse communities of the United Kingdom, the presentation of the regalia was done by Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh members of the House of Lords.
Resignation
In November 2024 Welby announced his resignation as the archbishop of Canterbury following a damning independent review of the Church of England’s handling of abuse by barrister John Smyth. Some 130 boys were physically, psychologically, and sexually abused by Smyth at Christian summer camps in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early ’80s and later in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Although Welby volunteered at these camps in the 1970s, he denied any knowledge of allegations against Smyth at that time (the report contests this, stating, “it is most probable that he [Welby] would have had at least a level of knowledge that John Smyth was of some concern”). In 2013, however, senior figures in the church, including Welby, were unequivocally made aware of the allegations from a victim report, yet Smyth was not reported to authorities in the United Kingdom nor in Africa where he was residing. Smyth died in 2018 while under investigation. In his resignation letter Welby stated, “I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church. As I step down I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse.”