Welby: Put rivalries aside

THE Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday echoed the Queen in appearing to warn of the divisions posed by Brexit.

The Most Rev Justin Welby used his Christmas Day sermon to call on the country to forget ‘tribalism, rivalry and political advantage’.

Earlier this month he said it could take society ‘ten years’ to reconcile after the referendum opened up ‘so much bitterness’. He told worshippers at Canterbury Cathedral yesterday: ‘God’s language of love is exclusive. It requires us to forget other languages of hatred, tribalism, rivalry, political advantage and of materialism, pride, greed, and so many more.’

In his sermon, Graham Usher, the Bishop of Dudley, also broached Brexit when he said: ‘Our current political debates also put up barriers between those who voted in different ways. Our country needs, more than ever, to seek grace and generosity in our political conversation so that there are not winners and losers, just the flourishing of all.’