Former oil company executive Justin Welby has accepted the post of Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the world’s tens of millions of Anglicans, reports said on Thursday.
Welby, 56, the current Bishop of Durham, will take over from incumbent Rowan Williams when he retires as head of the Church of England next month after a decade in the post, British newspapers and broadcasters reported.
Welby, who was educated at the exclusive Eton College where Prime Minister Cameron and second-in-line to the throne Prince William also studied, declined to confirm the reports.
“I am not able to comment, only Lambeth Palace can,” he said during a break in a parliamentary commission that he was attending, referring to the archbishop’s office.
Lambeth Palace announced that it would hold a news conference on Friday but would not give further details.
The office of Cameron, who must sign off on the appointment, also refused to comment but Downing Street sources said the announcement of the new archbishop was expected on Friday.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that the Crown Nominations Commission, a group of lay members and churchmen, had put Welby’s name forward for nomination.
The decision must also be officially approved by Queen Elizabeth II, who is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England as well as the British head of state.
Sources close to the selection process told the paper that Welby had emerged as “the outstanding candidate” despite being a bishop for only a year.
The incoming cleric faces a huge task in healing deep schisms among around 80 million Anglicans worldwide over female and gay bishops.
Welby is regarded as being on the evangelical wing of the Anglican community, in contrast to Williams who was seen as a liberal, although both of them reportedly share a stance opposing gay marriage.
Welby worked in the oil industry for 11 years before leaving to train for the Anglican priesthood and was first ordained as a deacon in 1992. “I was unable to get away from a sense of God calling,” he said in an interview.
He worked for Elf Aquitaine in Paris and then for Enterprise Oil, which was later bought out by Royal Dutch Shell.
He went on to become Dean of Liverpool in 2007 before being named Bishop of Durham in 2011.
Ruth Gledhill, the religion correspondent of The Times newspaper, said his financial background would be useful, especially as the Church of England takes a stand over corporate greed.
Other contenders for the post included veteran churchmen such as Archbishop of York John Sentamu, 63, Bishop of London Richard Chartres, 65, and Bishop of Norwich Graham James, 61.
The selection commission has 16 voting members including both senior clerics and lay members and is chaired by a former British arts minister, Richard Luce.
Williams, now 61, was appointed the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002, replacing George Carey.
He announced in March that he would take up a position as master of Magdalene College at Britain’s prestigious Cambridge University in January 2013.
His tenure was marked by his difficulties in maintaining unity amid disagreements over the consecration of female bishops in Britain, and of openly gay bishops in the United States.
The rows have threatened to cause a permanent rift with conservative Anglican bishops in Africa in particular.
Ex-oil executive Welby to 'become Archbishop'
