the times | Saturday May 28 2022 2GM 41
Saturday interviewNews
gay people are not welcome and that
rules me out”. Welby agrees with
Coles that “in parts of the church
there is homophobia and that is
unacceptable”. But he insists that he
has to hold together the Anglican
Church, including the “countries in
the global south who hold the
longstanding traditional view of sex
and same-sex relations and marriage”.H
e is more willing to give
his views on gender
identity. A woman, he
says, is “someone who is
sexually a woman, who is
born and identifies as a woman or
who has transitioned”. There is, he
says, “a difference between how you
identify a woman and how you
ensure that trans people are valued
and cared for in exactly the same way
as every other human being. They’re
not less, they have their particular
challenges, every human being has
their particular challenges.
“But we can’t get away from the
science. We’ve got to start there.”
The hounding of JK Rowling for
her views on the subject is wrong, he
says. “It’s fine to disagree vehemently
but not abusively... The culture wars
approach is where we end up in the
greatest trouble.”
Discovering the identity of his truefather did not affect him negatively,
he says. His main concern was to
protect his mother. “The two groups
of people you really don’t want to talk
about sex with or know about their
sex life is your parents and your
children... So to have to ring up your
mother and say, Do you remember?”
She had no idea. She said, ‘I am an
alcoholic and I was drunk’.” His
mother “was drinking very heavily
until I was about 12. Then she spent
several months in a mental hospital
drying out and having psychological
treatment. She came back and she
was completely different.”
Welby has talked powerfully about
his battles with depression. “I do
stupid things. I had a meeting a few
weeks ago, where I really lost my
temper. I wrote and apologised
afterwards... I’m not saying it was
because I was depressed. I was guilty
of really bad behaviour. But
reconciliation is holistic.”
That applies to communities too. “If
you’re in a society that is internally
riven, you will behave less well to
outsiders,” he says. “I think we’re
much more vulnerable. I think this is
an incredibly fragile time, but also an
incredibly hopeful time.”
The Power of Reconciliation by Justin
Welby is published by Bloomsbury,
June 9, £17.99should not be political is a nonsense’
Justin Portal Welby
Curriculum vitae
Born 6 January, 1956
Educated Degree from Trinity College
Cambridge in History and Law
Career Started out in the oil industry,
in which he spent 11 years. He was
ordained in 1992, and spent his first
15 years serving in Coventry,
where he was made a canon
at the cathedral. He became
the Dean of Liverpool in
2007 and served there until
becoming the Bishop of
Durham in 2011. He
announced that he would
be the 105th Archbishop of
Canterbury in late 2012.
Succeeded Dr Rowan
Williams in 2013 to become
the most senior bishop in
the Church of Englandand the head of the Anglican
Community.
Family He and his wife, Caroline, have
five children and four grandchildren
Quick fire
Christmas or Easter? Easter
Glass half full or glass half empty?
Half full
Dog collar or black tie?
Dog collar
Top Gun or Operation
Mincemeat? Operation
Mincemeat
Banksy or Botticelli?
Both
Fig tree or oak? Fig tree
Abba or evensong?
EvensongTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLEindividuals and small groups have become so powerful they are overwhelming our understanding of how society works