All posts Pray for Justin Welby and the Church of England
11/14/2012 1:40:03 PM
By Carmen Fowler LaBerge with Scott Lamb
“Until a few days ago, Justin Welby was the most influential bishop that you’d never heard of.” –The Telegraph
Justin Welby I look forward to watching and praying for the ministry and leadership of Justin Welby, the confirmed nominee to succeed Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury.
The 80-million people who comprise the international flock of the Church of England face schism over many issues, particularly sexuality, ministry and gender. The “Global South” group of church leaders who oppose the liberalizing of the church warned the selection committee to choose wisely. In nominating Welby, it appears as though they have heeded the warning and appointed someone whose theology is described as falling in the stream of evangelical Anglicanism.
Here is a clip of analysis from The Telegraph:[1]
There are two ways of looking at the decline of Christianity in England. One is to bemoan the relentless secularization and the supposed decay of society in general. The other is to accept that being Christian in Britain now means being part of a minority, and that the Church’s mission is to explain the Word of God to people who have grown up having never heard it. Those who know Bishop Welby place him firmly in the latter camp, and say that his mission is evangelical, and that his approach to the task was summed up by his predecessor-but-six Archbishop William Temple: “The Church is the only society on earth that exists for the benefit of non-members.”
This explains the relevance of Bishop Welby’s involvement in the Alpha course, one of the most successful innovations of modern British Christianity. It is a 10-week introduction to the faith, and an evangelical movement that has attracted two million Britons so far. It started at Holy Trinity Brompton, an influential church in west London, and now goes out to prisons and council estates, bucking the general trend of religious decline. Bishop Welby is an admirer and a friend of the movement.
No matter our denominational label, we should commit ourselves to pray for the ministry of leadership now resting on the shoulders of Justin Welby. In the midst of the fast-paced secularization of England and Europe, pray that Welby’s confidence in the Scripture and the Gospel would only deepen and mature – and that from such a foundation, he would lead the Church of England to hold fast to the faith once delivered to the saints. Welby formerly served as the Dean of Liverpool, a fact which reminds us of the great 19th century Bishop of Liverpool, J.C. Ryle, who once wrote:
Trouble or no trouble – pains or no pains – controversy, or no controversy – one thing is very sure: That nothing but Christ’s Gospel will ever do good to our own souls. Nothing else will maintain our churches. Nothing else will ever bring down God’s blessing upon our land. If, therefore, we love our own souls, or if we love our country’s prosperity, or if we love to keep our churches standing, we must remember the Apostles’ words, and “hold fast,” hold firmly the Gospel and refuse to let it go!
Indeed, as The Telegraph article on Welby states in closing, these are important days:
It is a seminal moment in the Church’s history. … The challenge facing the established Church is huge. But in the quiet, self-effacing Justin Welby, it has found just the man.
[1] “Justin Welby: The worldly capitalist looking to spread the Word of the Lord” The Telegraph, November 8, 2012.