Welby is praised by leaders for reaction to test result

THE Archbishop of Canterbury has been praised by faith leaders for the way he revealed that his biological father was not the man he first thought.

The Most Rev Justin Welby, who believed his father was Gavin Welby, said it was “a complete surprise” to find through DNA evidence his father is the late Sir Anthony Montague Browne – Sir Winston Churchill’s last private secretary.

In a statement he said: “I know that I find who I am in Jesus Christ, not in genetics, and my identity in him never changes.”

His mother, Lady Williams of Elvel, 86, described the revelation as “an unbelievable shock”, but added she recalls going to bed with Sir Anthony “fuelled by a large amount of alcohol on both sides”.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and the UK’s most senior Catholic cleric, tweeted that he was praying for the archbishop and his mother and said: “Our life in Christ matters most of all.”

The Bishop of Norwich, Graham James, said the archbishop took the DNA test thinking it would be disproved, and commended his “maturity”.

He said: “For the archbishop I think of course it is a surprise but he is dealing with it, I talked to him quite a lot last week, he is dealing with it with his usual maturity.”

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, from Maidenhead Synagogue, said the archbishop had set a “good example” of how to deal with unexpected news.

He said: “The news does not affect his personal identity in any way – he is who he has become – nor does it lessen his authority as archbishop.”