Chiswick Friends Attend Enthronement of Archbishop

The Welby family once lived in Grove Park

A group of Chiswick and ex-Chiswick friends met up at Canterbury to join in the celebration of Justin Welby's enthronement as Archbishop. He was enthroned as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury on 21 March.

In the early 80s, he and his family lived in Chara Place, off Milnthorpe Road in Grove Park and three of their children were born locally.

At that time he was working for Elf and then Enterprise Oil. He spent five years in Paris and six in London working for oil companies. While living in Chiswick in 1989 he felt the call to be ordained and moved to Durham to study theology. His church while living in Chiswick was Holy Trinity Brompton where he was a lay reader.

His friends used to joke, even at that stage, that he was future Bishop material.

The Canterbury service, largely created by the Archbishop himself, showed what determination he has to lead the Anglican Church with optimism and strength, based on the Christian gospel, said one friend who attended the enthronement.

The service and sermon demonstrated his desire to listen to, to unify and to reconcile all elements of the Church, both in this country and in the wider Anglican Communion, he said.

Two highlights of the service for those who attended were the challenge by a 17-year-old girl to the Archbishop as he sought entry to the cathedral and affirmed his simple straightforward faith and modest assumption of the new role; secondly, the excitement of the dancers and drums who provided an escort in the middle of the service.

Justin Welby's meteoric rise from, parish priest, to a Canon in Coventry, Dean of Liverpool, only a few months as Bishop of Durham and then Archbishop of Canterbury, together with his financial savvy and knowledge of finance and banking, promises a man who will not be afraid of engaging with the worlds of politics and business in his spiritual and practical leadership of the Anglican Church, said a Chiswick friend.

March 25, 2013