On 9 November, Queen Elizabeth II approved the nomination of the Rt. Rev. Justin Welby as the next Archbishop of Canterbury. Welby, who succeeds Rowan Williams, has wide-ranging career experience both inside and outside the church. He was a manager in the oil industry before deciding to study theology. He currently holds the post of Bishop of Durham.
Bishop Welby holds a moderate position in several of the issues that the Anglican Church has been debating in recent years. As the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury he will have the difficult task of mediating between the many churches of the Anglican Communion, which are drifting apart.
Archbishop Joris Vercammen congratulated Welby on behalf of the International Old Catholic Bishops’ Conference and expressed the hope that the Old Catholic and Anglican churches will work together even more closely in the future and solve the problem of overlapping jurisdictions in Europe.