Thursday, November 08, 2012

Profile: Anglican Bishop of Durham Justin Welby

The man expected to be named as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, turned his back on a successful career in the oil industry to train as an Anglican priest.

If his appointment is confirmed, he will also bring experience of personal tragedy and of civil conflict in Africa to his new role leading 80 million Christians in more than 160 countries.

The Bishop of Durham's rise to being on the verge of becoming the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury has been remarkably swift. He has been a bishop for little over a year and the 56-year-old became a priest only in his mid-30s.

The father-of-five emerged as a late favourite for the Church of England's most senior post after enjoying positive media coverage, having started the contest as an outsider.

Justin Portal Welby was born in London on 6 January 1956 to Gavin Bernard Welby and his wife, Jane Gillian (nee Portal), who remarried after her husband's death in 1975, becoming Lady Williams of Elvel.

Bishop Welby, who was educated at Eton and Trinity College Cambridge, spent 11 years as an oil executive and became group treasurer for FTSE 100 oil exploration group Enterprise Oil Plc prior to the biggest career decision of his life.

Former colleague Vivian Gibney recalls his diplomatic skills. "One of his main strengths is to find the way forward in negotiations… a solution that works for all sides," she said. "He is very good as seeing others' point of view."
 
Oil to the cloth

As an oil executive, Bishop Welby was earning a six-figure salary back in 1987 but gave it up to train to be an Anglican priest. He took a degree in theology at Cranmer Hall in Durham, where he studied from 1989 to 1992.

"I was unable to get away from a sense of God calling," he told business publication Money Marketing in a recent interview. "I went kicking and screaming but I couldn't escape it."

The life-changing decision followed a personal tragedy in 1983 with the death of his seven-month-old daughter, Johanna, in a car crash.

"It was a very dark time for my wife Caroline and myself, but in a strange way it actually brought us closer to God," he said in a local newspaper interview last year.

Even while working as an oil company executive, Bishop Welby had become a lay leader at the charismatic evangelical Holy Trinity Brompton church in London. Later, after ordination, he became curate in the village of Chilvers Coton with Astley, near Nuneaton.

The Reverend Simon Betteridge, who was a church youth worker at the time, recalls an "enthusiastic, hands-on vicar".

"The local authority had virtually closed down all the youth services and the church didn't have any major youth project work," he said.

"When Justin came he had a vision to provide a proper youth service which connected the church to young people in a deprived area. He was great fun and very energetic."

In 2002, Justin Welby became canon at Coventry Cathedral. He also became co-director for international ministry at the International Centre for Reconciliation.

He already had experience of Africa from his oil days, but he was now to witness at first hand some of the horrific results of civil war. On a number of occasions he came close to being killed.

He was able to develop a deep understanding of the nature of conflict, as well as an admiration for the Nigerian people who, he says, retain their faith and energy in the face of terrifying odds - something he says continues to inspire him.

"You saw this practical vision, this willingness to overcome things that most of us would be traumatised by for a generation," he told the BBC at the time.

In summer 2011, Justin Welby became Bishop of Durham, one of the most senior posts in the Church of England. At this year's Synod he was involved in the negotiations to defuse a potential crisis over a vote on women bishops.

In a pastoral letter to his diocese on the issue he wrote how he was "committed to and believes in the ordination of women as bishops".

He has been less forthright about his views on homosexuality. While he has rigorously defended the Church's right to oppose single-sex marriages, he has also been keen to accommodate opposing views expressed from a position of deeply held faith.

Bishop Welby was recently appointed to the parliamentary commission on banking standards, which is looking into the Libor rate-fixing scandal. He has also written extensively on business ethics, including a 1992 book "Can Companies Sin?"

The Church will hope that his passion for resolving conflict and finding workable solutions will equip him for some of the huge challenges confronting the worldwide Anglican community over the coming months and years. 

The current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said his eventual successor would need "the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros".