PROFILE GLOBAL BUSINESSNach einem Schicksalsschlag wandte er sich von der Wirtschaft ab und der Kirche zu. Doch auch
dort machte er Karriere. MARGARETDAVISschreibt über die eher ungewöhnliche familiäre Herkunft und
kirchliche Laufbahn des heute höchsten Würdenträgers der Church of England.The business of religion
T
he Archbishop of Canter-
bury, Justin Welby, attended
Eton College, an exclusive
school for boys, and gradu-
ated from Trinity College,
Cambridge, one of the top universi-
ties in the world. Nothing surprising
there, you might think. But you’d be
wrong.
Welby, since March 2013 head of
the Church of England and symbolic
leader of the Anglican Church world-
wide, is not your typical representa-
tive of the Church elite. For one thing,
he was a highly successful executive
with French and British oil companies
until 1989, when he left to study the-
ology. And for another, there’s his un-
conventional family background. His
father, Gavin, made his money as a
bootlegger— and, as Welby discov-
ered only a year ago, was the son of
a German-Jewishimmigrant.Justin Portal Welby was bornon 6
January 1956 in London. His parents,
Jane and Gavin, divorcedwhen he
was three, and the young Justin was
raisedby his father, an alcoholic. It
was an unsettledupbringing. “He
was very affectionate, brilliant intel-
lectually but quite demanding,” Wel-
by says of his father, who died in- “I lived with him but I didn’t
know him very well. He told lots of
stories but one was never really sure
what was true and what wasn’t,”
Welby told The Sunday Telegraph.
Money was often tight: he remembers
packing up and leavingrented flats in
the middle of the night, probably to
avoid his father’s creditors.
It was thanks to researchdone by
The Daily Telegraphnewspaper that
Welby learned his father was born
Bernard Weiler, the son of a Jewish
immigrant from Germany and his
London-born wife. The Weilers
anglicized their nameto Welby dur-
ing the First World War. At age 19,
Bernard (now Gavin) went to the US,
where he made a fortuneas a boot-
legger during Prohibition and married
a New Jersey heiress. He is said to
have introduced John F. Kennedy to
one of his first mistresses, and on his
return to England, he datedactress
Vanessa Redgrave and ranunsuccess-
fully for parliament.
Justin Welby’s mother, born Jane
Portal, was a private secretary to
Winston Churchill; her uncle, “Rab”
Butler, was a Conservative deputy
prime minister in the 1960s. Justin
Welby met his wife, Caroline, atCambridge, where he got an MAin
history and lawin 1978. They had six
children. The death of their first child,
at just seven months, in a car accident
in France in 1983, led to Welby’s de-
cision to leave a successful career asmediumaffectionate liebevoll
[E(fekS&nEt]
anglicize one’s name seinen Namen
[)ÄNglIsaIz wVnz (neIm]anglisieren
archbishop [)A:tS(bISEp]Erzbischof
bootlegger Alkoholschmugg-
[(bu:tlegE] ler(in)
creditor [(kredItE] Gläubiger(in)
date sb. [deIt] mit jmdm. ausgehen
demanding fordernd
[di(mA:ndIN]
deputy [(depjUti] stellvertretende(r)
divorce [dI(vO:s] sich scheiden lassen
executive [Ig(zekjUtIv] Führungskraft,
Manager(in)
for another [fEr E(nVDE]zum anderen
for one thing zum einen
[fE (wVn TIN]
fortune [(fO:tSEn] Vermögen
graduate (from a seinen Abschluss
university) (an einer Universi-
[(grÄdZueIt] tät) machen
heiress [(eEres] Erbin
Jewish [(dZu:IS] jüdisch
law [lO:] Jura
MA (Master of Arts) Magister für Geistes-
[)em (eI] wissenschaften
mistress [(mIstrEs] Geliebte
pack up and leave seine Sachen pa-
[pÄk )Vp En (li:v] cken und gehen
raise sb. [reIz] jmdn. großziehen
research [ri(s§:tS] Recherche(n)
run for parliament für einen Sitz im Par-
[)rVn fE (pA:lEmEnt] lament kandidieren
tight [taIt] knapp
unsettled [)Vn(set&ld] unstet, unbeständig
upbringing [(Vp)brININ] Erziehung4
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