At once very much a man of God yet also a man of the world, the archbishop manages to combine both to put his evangelical faith into action, using his experience of business to push forward issues ranging from ethics in the City to payday lenders and poverty in the UK.
He has formed around him a team of expert advisers and cut through Lambeth Palace bureaucracy to ensure he has the people he needs to turn his vision into reality.
“It’s a style of leadership nurtured in the business world. He doesn’t mess around, and he has a very clear vision of where he wants to go,” says Ruth Gledhill, contributing editor to Christian Today.
“His leadership has meant that you can feel a brightening and lifting of the atmosphere in church – and you think ‘maybe we have got a future’.
The ABC’s press minders are clearly on the offensive – this is yet another article of almost slavering devotion, yet with very little objective indication as to why ++Welby is “super-astute”.
Ruth Gledhill is quoted as saying, “It’s now a Church that’s confident in itself for the first time in a long time.” For heavens sake – very little about the Church of England, positive or negative, has changed much from when ++Williams was in charge. Its still much the same as it was – most people in it are encouraged about some things, and discouraged by others. In the former category, many parishes are getting on with life and managing pretty well, and that didn’t change when ++Williams left. In the latter category, money is clearly short in the CofE, and nothing in that respect has changed at all.
Or take this as an example of waffle:
“He warned that hunger “stalks large parts” of Britain, after the all-party parliamentary group report that he funded to examine the causes of and solutions for food poverty in Britain reported back.”
Politicians of all stripes in Britain were well aware of this. ++Welby’s group does not appear to have come up with anything that was not already known, nor did it garner any meaningful extra publicity to the issue, nor is there any indication that it will lead to any greater political traction. The report did, however, garner a significant amount of extra publicity for ++Welby.
The Cof E and the Anglican Communion need substance, and it appears that what they are getting is fluff and spin.
“For heavens sake – very little about the Church of England, positive or negative, has changed much from when ++Williams was in charge.” An astute observation MichaelA, because the “hairy leftie” agenda and that of the EcUSA are advancing just as under Row, Row, Rowan.
Fascinating to see the full-court press the p.r. folks are putting on for Welby. Makes one wonder why, at this time.
#3. I think the Press is relieved they are at least talking to someone who doesn’t purport to be so profound. He’s like the ‘guy next door’ in terms of manner. With Williams the Press was supposed to think they were in the presence of vast erudition and grand insight, even when they suspected it was a bit too overdone.