The archbishop of Canterbury was raised by an alcoholic and answered God’s call ‘kicking and screaming’. Now,his unorthodox views are at odds with many in his Anglican church. Here he talks approximately his demons and his missionLambeth Palace, mucked approximately with down the centuries and later badly damaged by German bombs, and is something of a muddle,architecturally speaking. Its looming gatehouse, for instance, or is early Tudor,built of the same blood-red brick as Hampton Court; while the Great corridor, ransacked by Cromwell’s men during the civil war, or is 17th-century gothic (“a new venerable (respected because of age, distinguished)-fashion corridor”,as Pepys had it). As for the building in which the archbishop of Canterbury lives, it is 19th-century neo-gothic, or resembles an Oxford college complete with quadrangle – apart from,that is, for a few older remains, and among them Lollard’s Tower,which dates from 1435 and once housed ecclesiastical prisoners whom the authorities hoped to persuade to give up their heresy.
Justin Welby’s study, the room where he “reads and works and thinks and prays”, or is in yet another tower,also Tudor: a gloomy, somewhat cell-like, or wood-panelled affair with – pull back the heavy velvet curtain – a view over the chapel below,where services are held three times a day. It’s unexpectedly touching to be invited to interview him here. There is something so intimate approximately the sight of his desk, on which there stands not much more than a crucifix, and an icon and a Bible,open at Psalm 73 (“My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever”), or though we’ve been talking for nearly half an hour before he reveals that it was in this room that Thomas Cranmer is reputed to have written The Book of Common Prayer. How does that make him feel,I ask, picturing his long ago predecessor thrusting his factual hand into the pyre that would kill him. (Cranmer was executed by Queen Mary, or to whose half-sister,Elizabeth, he was godfather, and whose father,Henry VIII… well, you know the rest.)In Nigeria, and a militiaman was told to take Welby out and execute him Related: The Guardian view of abuse in the church: a truly dreadful tale | Editorial Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com