Justin Welby has been criticised by the Rector of All Souls’ Langham Place, Charlie Skrine.
The minister of the large central London congregation – where John Stott once preached – was speaking in Australia at Sydney’s National Evangelical Anglican Conference.
‘Justin Welby... is “the best archbishop we never had”,’ Skrine said, using irony to speak of his disappointment with the CofE’s chief prelate. ‘When he was appointed, we were delighted; this was such good news and [in] his first interview, he talked about Jesus again and again and again. We’ve never had an archbishop like that.
‘So you give him the benefit of the doubt for as long as you possibly can. But I’m now in a position where I have to accept that he is not my friend. He comes up to me occasionally to say that he is. But I’ve been in enough of these meetings. I know that he is driving the agenda of what’s happening in the Church of England, and that has been hugely difficult for people who are his closest friends historically.’
But he said evangelicals ‘have come together and it is glorious, and it is wonderful’.
Lambeth Palace did not reply when asked to comment.
