Welby to be knighted by King for service to the Crown

THE Archbishop of Canterbury will be knighted by the King for his “personal service” to the Crown in the New Year Honours List.

The Most Revd Justin Welby, 67, is to be admitted to the Royal Victorian Order. The honour could be seen as controversial by some politicians given Dr Welby’s criticism of the Government’s asylum policy.

In September, Suella Braverman, then the home secretary, refused to meet him to discuss the Government’s policy after he branded plans to deport migrants to Rwanda as being “against the judgment of God”.

In 2021, he said that a failure by world leaders to reach agreement on climate change would result in a worse “genocide” than that committed by the Nazis.

He subsequently said he should not have made a comparison with wartime German atrocities and apologised to the Jewish community.

The last serving Church leader to receive the honour in the recent past was post-war Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher, who crowned Elizabeth II in 1953.

reported that Dr Welby’s honour was understood to be related to his being the first Archbishop of Canterbury to conduct a coronation since then, as in May he crowned the King at Westminster Abbey.

In 2018, he also married the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and became close to the couple when he gave them pre-marriage counselling.

However, he was later forced to point out that he had not secretly married them three days before their official ceremony, and that it would have been a “serious criminal offence” had he signed their marriage certificate knowing it to be false.

The King and Dr Welby are known to enjoy a warm relationship with one another. In a forthcoming BBC documentary about the King’s first year on the throne to be shown on Boxing Day, the King can be seen laughing when Dr Welby forgets the blessing during Coronation rehearsals.

The Royal Victorian Order was created by Queen Victoria in 1896 to recognise distinguished personal service to the monarch. It has five grades of membership including the top two grades of Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) and Knight Commander (KCVO). It is not yet known which grade Dr Welby will receive.