Welby says his depression is kept in check by love of God
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has talked about fighting depression, saying his faith acted as a “safety net”.
Justinwelby said feeling loved by God while experiencing a “real, vicious sense of dislike of oneself” over his personal and professional failures was “very odd”.
He made the comments to author Elif Shafak as they explored the topics of faith, doubt and depression in the first episode of BBC Radio 4 programmethe Archbishop Interviews.
The Most Rev Welby, right, said: “My own experience of depression – one of the symptoms of it is self-hatred, selfcontempt, real, vicious sense of dislike of oneself.
“And that seems very odd when it combines with also a deep sense that I’m loved by God. And in my life that expressed itself almost as a safety net.
“I would say in my prayers – I may be this terrible person, this failure as an archbishop, whatever it is, but I know you know me better than I know myself and you still love me.
“And by that I am held.”
He said a book written by his daughter, Katherinewelby-roberts, had encouraged him to speak to others and get help.
The archbishop said: “For me one of the most important things was a book written by our eldest daughter about her own depression.
“She had a breakdown and very severe depression and still suffers from illness, and she’s married now with two children.
“She wrote a beautiful book called I Thoughttherewould Be Cake. In other words, when she was grown up, there’d be cake. And how different it was.
“And in that there was a chapter about the need to be open to speak to others. And so I did. I went to get some help and that has made a huge difference.”
Earlier this week, the archbishop was accused of risking a “mistrial”
in a Cambridge University donor memorial row by putting “unreasonable pressure” on a church court judge.
The archbishop waded into the debate at the General Synod last week, asking: “Why is it so much agony to remove a memorial to slavery?”
He was told to withdraw his comments and apologise for intervening during an ongoing legal inquiry into whether Jesus College should remove a memorial to Tobias Rustat from its chapel after research found he was a “major investor” in a 17th-century slave-trading company.