Welby told CNC: ‘appointing me would be absurd’

From The Church Times-

THE Archbishop-elect, the Rt Revd Justin Welby, told the Crown Nominations Commission that it would be "a joke" and "perfectly absurd" to choose him for Canterbury, it emerged this week.

In an interview at the Trent Vineyard Church in Nottingham, alongside his wife, Caroline, on Sunday, Bishop Welby described the appointment process. He had been invited, along with other diocesan bishops, to write a statement outlining what he would do if he was appointed Archbishop.

"I'd been a bishop, let alone the Bishop of Durham, for seven months," Bishop Welby said. "So I wrote a statement saying: 'Well, if I was Archbishop of Canterbury I'd do this, this, this, and this.'

"And the final paragraph said: 'I've enjoyed writing this. I hope you've enjoyed reading it. But frankly it's a joke, because it is self-evident that it is perfectly absurd to consider appointing someone to Canterbury who's been a bishop for seven months. I shall be praying for you to make the right choice."

During the interview, Bishop Welby spoke of the death of his daughter, Johanna, at the age of seven months, five days after a car crash in Paris, in May 1983. In October of that year, the couple accompanied the Rt Revd Sandy Millar, then Vicar of Holy Trinity, Brompton, on a trip to California, where they met the Revd John Wimber, one of the founders of the Vineyard movement.

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2013/1-february/news/uk/welby-told-cnc-‘appointing-me-would-be-absurd’