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In his role as Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has presided over royal weddings and funerals – but he has also spoken of a “messy” early life and subsequent battle with depression. Before being ordained in 1992, Mr Welby had an 11-year career in the oil industry. He was installed as Archbishop of Canterbury in a service at Canterbury Cathedral in March 2013.
As well as being a church leader in England, he is a spiritual leader to around 85 million people across the globe in what is known as the Anglican Communion. He sits in the House of Lords and has been outspoken on political issues including child poverty – condemning the “cruel” two-child benefit policy – and assisted dying, the legalisation of which he has warned could lead to a “slippery slope”. He also strongly criticised the previous Conservative government’s scheme to send asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats to Rwanda, which he warned was “leading the nation down a damaging path”.
A short time later he gave a speech hinting at his own experiences of being trolled online, speaking of the downsides of social media and hitting out at society’s “absolutely appalling” attitude to forgiveness in an apparent reference to cancel culture. On that occasion, he said: “All of us know – I know especially at the moment, I’m not going to go into that one, I’m not going to go into debates in Parliament – but we know at the moment what it is to be trolled, to be threatened.” Faith has acted as a “safety net” for the church leader, who has spoken of his personal experiences with depression which had led him to experience feelings of “self-hatred, self-contempt, real, vicious sense of dislike of oneself”.
In April 2023, in a series of lectures at Canterbury Cathedral to mark Holy Week, the archbishop said taking antidepressants had helped him to “react like an average sort of human being”. Using a Winnie the Pooh analogy, he said antidepressants “restore me to Eeyore status from something much worse”. In 2016, Mr Welby revealed that his biological father was the late Sir Anthony Montague Browne – Sir Winston Churchill’s last private secretary.
This had come as “a complete surprise” through DNA evidence, he said at the time, having believed his father was Gavin Welby, the man who raised him. His mother, Lady Williams of Elvel, described the revelation as “an almost unbelievable shock”, but added she recalls going to bed with Sir Anthony “fuelled by a large amount of alcohol on both sides”. In a statement at the time Mr Welby said: “I know that I find who I am in Jesus Christ, not in genetics, and my identity in him never changes.
” Gavin Welby died “as a result of the alcohol and smoking” in 1977, when the archbishop was 21, while Lady Williams died aged 93 in July 2023. She had also battled alcoholism and Mr Welby has previously said that “as a result of my parents’ addictions my early life was messy”. In October 2024, he revealed one of his ancestors owned slaves at a plantation in Jamaica.
He said a recent trip to the country “has helped me to confront the legacies of enslavement in the Caribbean”. Mr Welby said his great, great, great grandfather Sir James Fergusson – an ancestor of his biological father Sir Anthony – was an owner of enslaved people at the Rozelle Plantation in St Thomas, Jamaica. Mr Welby has also spoken lovingly of his own family, paying tribute to his “exceptionally precious” daughter Ellie, who is neurodiverse.
In his role as church leader, Mr Welby has been front and centre on major state occasions, not least the coronation of the King in 2023. He anointed and crowned Charles, and admitted beforehand the thought was giving him “nightmares”, saying: “I dreamt we got to the point (of the coronation) and I’d left the crown at Lambeth Palace.” He had, in September the previous year, officiated the late Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral service, telling mourners at Westminster Abbey the monarch had touched “a multitude of lives” and was a “joyful” figure for many.
Mr Welby also officiated the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2018 and has christened some of the royal children over the years. Within the church, the archbishop has had to deal with division over the issue of same-sex blessings. Following a vote in 2023 in favour of the move, an organisation representing some Anglican churches questioned his fitness to lead.
The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) criticised the passing of the motion, while others have consistently argued the church has not gone far enough and should allow same-sex marriage. Mr Welby spoke a number of times during a lengthy Synod debate on the matter, and recognised there is “very painful” disagreement on the issue within the church. His latest challenge has seen him face calls to resign in the wake of a report into a barrister thought to have been the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England.
Critics say the findings of the Makin review, which concluded Mr Welby should have alerted authorities in the UK and Africa in 2013 to abuse committed by John Smyth, mean his position as archbishop has become untenable. Mr Welby said the review had made clear that he “personally failed to ensure that after disclosure in 2013 the awful tragedy was energetically investigated”. But he said while he had given resignation “a lot of thought”, he had taken advice from senior colleagues and has decided he will stay in post.
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