Holy Smoke: the next Archbishop of Canterbury
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 14 September 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It is 10 months since the resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury. Now, finally, the Crown Nominations Commission is believed to have drawn up a shortlist of candidates, and a successor to Welby could be approved by October.
Theologian and author Andrew Graystone joins Damian Thompson to talk through what he calls ‘a weak list’ of potential candidates – weak because there are no obvious frontrunners and the Commission is choosing between ‘half a dozen equals’.
These range from the more talked-about Michael Beasley (Bath and Wells), Guli France-Dehqani (Chelmsford) and Rose Hudson-Wilson (Dover) [all pictured in the thumbnail] to the ‘others’: Stephen Lake (Salisbury), Martyn Snow (Leicester), Joanne Grenfell (St Edmundsbury and Ipswich), Sarah Mullallay (London), Rachel Treweek (Gloucester) and Ruth Worsely (interim bishop of Liverpool).
As Andrew tells Damian, factors dividing the candidates include their age, their views on LGBT inclusion and, crucially, their records on safeguarding issues. Also, note the presence of six women on this list. Could the Church be about to appoint the first female Primate of All England? And could this lead to disastrous controversy within the Anglican Communion – or is that body already so fractured that the Church of England will ignore its objections?
Anyone wondering why the process has taken so long – especially compared to the 17 days it took the Catholic Church to elect a new Pope this year – should check out our previous episode with Andrew here.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Subscribe to The Spectator and get 12 weeks of Britain's most incisive politics coverage, |
| 0:04.8 | unrivaled books and arts reviews, and so much more, all for just £12. |
| 0:09.7 | Not only that, but we'll also send you a £20,000 Amazon gift card absolutely free. |
| 0:15.1 | As a subscriber, you'll also be able to listen to all our other podcasts, ad free, |
| 0:20.6 | including quite right, the new podcast with me, |
| 0:23.4 | Michael Gove and our assistant editor, Madeline Grant. Go to www.combe.combe.combeau-Uk forward slash |
| 0:32.3 | voucher to claim this offer now. Terms apply. |
| 0:46.3 | Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectator's Religion podcast. I'm Damien Thompson. |
| 0:58.0 | It's now ten months since Justin Welby resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury, and nobody has been appointed. At some point in the middle of this month, September, the Crown Nominations |
| 1:05.0 | Commission will be interviewing shortlisted candidates, but we don't know who they are. So I am joined by an expert in this field |
| 1:12.9 | who's been on the show a few months ago, when we still didn't have an Archbishop of Canterbury, |
| 1:18.0 | Andrew Greystone, theologian, and very sharp-witted church commentator, if I may say so. |
| 1:26.1 | Who knows who might be in the running and who might not? |
| 1:29.3 | First question, Andrew, why 10 months on is there still no appointment? |
| 1:35.8 | As I said last time, it took the Catholic Church, what, 17 days between Francis dying and the |
| 1:41.6 | election of Lear? |
| 1:42.8 | Yeah, bizarrely, the Crown nominations Commission sits for about the same number of hours |
| 1:47.4 | that the Roman Catholic conclave sat for in choosing a new Pope. |
| 1:52.8 | It's just that they do it over the course of a year. |
| 1:56.0 | They're just heading into their third meeting, which is, we're told, |
| 2:00.6 | are going to be interviews of shortlisted |
| 2:03.2 | candidates after which a decision will be made and the job will be offered. But why does it |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Spectator, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Spectator and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.