Panic as Archbishop drops wedding ring

FOR many young priests, their first-ever wedding is a nervous occasion.

They may be able to draw comfort, however, in knowing that things do not always go smoothly even for the most senior cleric.

The Archbishop of Canterbury caused a moment of panic for one couple last Saturday after he dropped the bride’s ring during the ceremony.

In the middle of marrying Ailsa Anderson, his head of media relations, to Simon Cole, a journalist, Justin Welby remarked that he had been given only one ring.

In fact both rings had been placed on the order of service by the groom’s sons – but one had slipped from the Archbishop’s grasp and rolled away. It took a moment of frantic searching by guests for the bride to locate it under a nearby chair.

The new Mrs AndersonCole said: “Simon’s two sons Adam and Tomek gave him away. Justin was officiating. They put the two rings on the order of service for Justin and he looked down and said ‘is there only one ring?’. We looked around for a little while, and saw it had rolled under a chair.”

The Archbishop had offered to marry the couple after they got engaged at Christmas, in part, she added, because “he wanted to make to a speech”.

“It was absolutely gorgeous – we couldn’t have wished for a better day,” she said. “My ring is firmly on my finger and hasn’t come off.”

The ceremony is the first wedding conducted by the Archbishop since he married his daughter Katharine to Michael Roberts at Canterbury Cathedral in 2014.