Archbishop of Canterbury visits New Zealand

Archbishop of Canterbury visits New Zealand

The Archbishop of Canterbury is to visit New Zealand this week.

The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Welby is the most senior bishop of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a first among equals amongst Anglican bishops.

The Archbishop, and his wife Caroline, are visiting New Zealand as part of a commitment to visit all Primates around the Anglican Communion during his first 18 months in office. They arrive in New Zealand on Thursday and leave on Friday as part of a ten-day visit to the Philippines and Oceania. This is the first visit the Archbishop has made to New Zealand.

The main purpose of the visit is to meet with the three primates, known as archbishops of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, and so it is relatively private in nature.

The visit will celebrate the 200th proclaimed in New Zealand. The Archbishop will preach in a service at 6pm on Thursday 14th August in Holy Sepulchre Church, Grafton, Auckland.

On Friday morning the Archbishop will visit Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral.

He will be shown the work that is underway to complete and consecrate the Cathedral. It is currently closed, as it is a construction site. In a service at 11am he will unveil the foundation stone for the Bishop Selwyn Chapel, for which construction is about to begin.

Justin Welby studied history and law before working in the oil industry as treasurer of a large British exploration and production company. He left that in 1989 to train for ministry. He is the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury and began the office in February 2013. He is married to Caroline and they have two sons and three daughters.

ends

© Scoop Media