Israel-Palestine €“ it's all about teamwork. Archbishop Welby takes to the football pitch to make a point

It's not every day that an Archbishop of Canterbury can be found playing football with Arab and Jewish children on the coast of the Mediterranean.

But Justin Welby's 12-day tour of the Holy Land – which came to an end today after intensive visits to Jordan, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Galilee and Hebron – has been anything but normal.

The Archbishop rounded off his jam-packed agenda with a kickabout at the British Foreign Office-funded Equalizer Project in Jaffa, where Arab teams from the town come together to play soccer with Jewish kids from neighbouring Tel Aviv, on the condition that they engage in studies together as well. The project, which involves 200 schools and some 3,000 children, also brings together immigrants and refugees, including from Africa.

'This is absolutely brilliant' exclaimed Welby, pulling on a special purple shirt emblazoned with the Lambeth Palace crest, one of a series he handed out to his team of young players.

Alongside a range of 12-year-olds, Welby's team-mates included members of his traveling staff on this highly successful Middle-Eastern trip, including its architect, inter-religious secretary Mark Poulson, who was in this reporter's view the man of the match, director of communications Ailsa Anderson, in her trademark high heels, and the Archbishop's serene chaplain, Isabel Hamley.

Welby claimed modestly to have 'no coordination' but he made his mark early in the match, delivering a header to clear the ball away from the goal-mouth he used to occupy as keeper when he was a schoolboy.

Today, the Archbishop adopted a centre back-cum-sweeper role, watching the ball intently during the high quality 10-minute game, which ended in a nil-nil draw, a result the Archbishop described as 'perfect'. Reflecting on the game, he added: 'It wasn't a bad header – I was quite pleased with myself.'

The Equalizer programme, a microcosm of what co-existence could look like in this disputed land, started seven years ago in seven schools in the region, and is made up of more than 400 volunteers who take up roles ranging from tutors to match referees.

'Here we're not trying to turn out the next Wayne Rooney, but decent human beings, good people' said Liran Gerassi, Equalizer's founder.

After the game, described as a 'weird' experience by one of the young players, Welby spoke at the Shimon Peres Centre for Peace in Jaffa, alonsgide the late Israeli president's son, Chemi. The pair addressed an audience in front of an audience of young Christian, Jewish and Muslim 'ambassadors for peace' who work on a range of projects linked to the centre.

'Shimon Peres always supported and worked for peace initiatives,' Welby said. 'I am glad that we have people like you – Christian, Muslim, and Jewish, Palestinian and Israeli – who continue in this vision. We need you. You are our future. I will support you.'

Peres said: 'Most people on both sides want peace. They want to live a good life, to see their children successful and secure. You young people must not wait for an end to the conflict, but must trust yourselves and get together, Jews and Arabs.'

While acknowledging that he did not have all the answers, Welby reiterated a message he has delivered repeatedly towards the end of his Middle Eastern trip, saying that there was a 'desperate, desperate need for peace'. He added: 'That need has been borne in on me more and more deeply.'