He is an interesting appointment. His ministry has London roots: he is, in part, a product of the evangelical approach favoured by Holy Trinity Brompton, which has its critics as well as admirers. In that sense he will be quite different from the scholarly, liberal-catholic Williams. He has real-life experience, having worked in the oil industry, where his work included dealing with disputes in oil-rich Nigeria. He has been deployed by the Church to engage in Christian-Muslim dialogue in Africa, an urgent matter, given the targeting of Christians in Nigeria by Islamists. He has a background that should equip him to deal with the different challenges of being head of the 77 million-strong Anglican communion and the Church of England.

So far as London is concerned, he will bring a bracing familiarity with the business world to bear on his moral critique of Mammon....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury

1. MichaelA wrote: “He has real-life experience, having worked in the oil industry, where his work included dealing with disputes in oil-rich Nigeria” True. As an aside, so did Robert Runcie - the only modern ABC to have knowingly killed other human beings (whatever way you look at it, sitting in a tank and shooting and being shot at by other human beings counts as “real life experience”)!  But yes, working some years in an office job is worthwhile experience for any prelate. “The danger is that he will, like his predecessor, become entangled in the interminable disputes about sexuality and gender within the CofE; he needs to unify opposites.” Also true - this is his real job.  But he will have to be careful that he is not seen as having already aligned himself firmly with one side: http://www.collegeforbishops.org/assets/1145/bishop_of_durham_reflections_to_tec_hob.pdf November 9, 7:00 am | [comment link]

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