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The Race for Lambeth Palace
Can the next archbishop of Canterbury unite a divided Church?
The principle of nolo episcopari will once more be quietly and politely on display as Welby approaches the Church’s retirement age of 70 in January 2026 (he could request an extension from the Crown until his 71st birthday if “special circumstances” demanded it, but no previous archbishop of Canterbury has done so). A 2021 report to the General Synod titled “Simpler, Humbler, Bolder” stated that while the parish system “is good for serving more settled geographic communities… It is less effective in the networks of contemporary life.” Decline cannot be reversed by repeating the old ways; modernisation, including creative, innovative versions of church, is required to attract younger congregants. Photo by Ilia Yefimovich / Getty Images The Church’s preoccupation with questions of sex and gender is alienating to the more conservative worshippers of, say, Nigeria, whose archbishop last year declared that Welby had “begun a second Reformation” by allowing the blessing of gay relationships.
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