SUFFERING and enemies abounded, however the Church of England should resist lapsing into bitterness, the Archbishop of Canterbury said in his presidential address to the General Synod on Friday afternoon.
In September 2023, the UN secretary-general had said that “the world is coming off its hinges.” How could Christians respond, Archbishop Welby asked. Suffering was a “dangerous theological reality” that the Psalms were shot through with, however the Church was “curiously blind” to it. Other Churches recognised the inevitability of suffering, especially for leaders akin to bishops, he suggested.
When they looked world wide today, Archbishop Welby continued, “all of the lights are flashing red”: suffering was obvious. The war in Ukraine had been frozen in place, while the “havoc and horror” of the conflict in Gaza now dominated the headlines.
Other crises were mostly forgotten, nevertheless. Archbishop Welby referred to the civil war in Myanmar (News, 9 February), the hundreds of thousands killed in conflict within the Democratic Republic of the Congo (News, 23 February), and the “unimaginable” refugee crisis in Sudan.
“The world doesn’t watch: it turns its head away,” he said. Tensions in Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines, Mozambique, or on the southern border of the United States — all were ignored, he said.
The Pope had described the interconnected web of conflicts as a “Third World War”, the Archbishop said. “Amidst all of it there’s intense, terrible, indescribable personal suffering — and it is just not confined to abroad.”
Everything from the news, the Psalms, and private experience taught that suffering was normal, he said. “And yet we naïvely cling to the hope that things will at all times work out in some way.”
Succumbing to the temptation to place aside the Church’s internal wranglings within the face of such suffering can be a mistake, nevertheless, Archbishop Welby argued. Instead, he said — quoting George Bell on the eve of the Second World War — the trail forward was to be “much more the Church”.
Bitterness and private abuse had turn out to be normalised within the Church, Archbishop Welby said. His own correspondence secretary was “worn down by the expressions of hatred normally coming from throughout the Church”. Despite biblical injunctions to not act out of fear, fear pervaded.
People observing the Synod’s deliberations had noted the “angst-ridden tone” and “unfair attacks”. “We have to assume the very best reasonably than the worst,” Archbishop Welby warned members. “Suffering and enemies are faced best in communities with trust across the divide reasonably than in self-protecting and reinforcing huddles.” This was difficult, however the Church wouldn’t have the option to minister to the skin world unless it was dealing well with its own internal issues.
God couldn’t be kept out of the Church’s discussions, Archbishop Welby warned. Quoting the Psalms, he said: “We can fail, but God cannot. God is at all times at work amongst us, today and on a regular basis.”
Concluding his address, Archbishop Welby presented Tom Joy, chief investment officer of the Church Commissioners (Interview, 23 February), the Canterbury Cross for services to the Church of England. Mr Joy is leaving to take up a recent job overseas.
When Mr Joy had arrived in 2009, the Commissioners’ assets had been price £4 billion; after 14 years’ consecutive positive returns, they’d grown to £10 billion. This had enabled a 30-per-cent increase in distributions to the C of E, the Archbishop said.
Mr Joy was also praised for leading the Commissioners’ push into investing in forestry and the public-bond market, and for keeping environmental and social concerns on the forefront.
