Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was given a rare church honour in Jerusalem tonight as he was installed as Episcopal Canon at St. George's Anglican Cathedral in the holy city.
At a joyous Evensong service at the Cathedral, Archbishop Welby was received into the Episcopal Canonry of Mount Carmel at the church, which Welby described as being situated 'in the centre of the world'.
After being installed, Welby joked that, 'The wonderful thing about this new job is that it doesn't involve much work,' adding: 'Except a good deal of prayer, which I undertake to do.'
The service, which featured the hymn 'Guide me, O Thou Great Redeemer' as well as Psalm 29, Canticles and traditional renditions of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimitis, was presided over by the Archbishop of Jerusalem, Suheil Dawani and the Cathedral's Dean, Hosam Naoum.
Archbishop Dawani welcomed the chance to 'celebrate the company' of Welby, to whom he said: 'Your grace, it is our profound privilege to welcome you to this holy city.'
In a short homily, Dawani also highlighted the plight of Christians in the Holy Land, saying that just as Jesus wept over Jerusalem, so too, today, Christians there weep.
But, he said: 'This is a city that speaks of peace... we Christians have a central role to play in this land.' Describing Christians in the region as 'living stones,' he pointed out that they were a 'precious few,' with only around 1,000 Christians left in Gaza and Christians making up around 2 per cent of the Palestinian population.
'The Christian presence in this land is small but it is strong,' he added. 'The fellowship that we enjoy this evening speaks profoundly of the presence of Christ... We are his people because we follow his way of love and peace in the world... We rejoice in this commonality that we find.'
The Archbishop also referred to the renovation of the Edicule at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where a queue of hundreds this afternoon wound around the church built on the site where Jesus is held by the faithful to have been crucified, buried and resurrected.
Welby's wife, Caroline, read from the Book of Ruth during the service.
The St George's ceremony was conducted in both English and Arabic, as was the Communion service this morning at the Cathedral, during which Welby lamented during his sermon about the 'suffering and persecution' among Christians and others in the region.
At a reception for cross-denominational leaders after the service, Welby spoke of the need for reconciliation as 'something that begins... in the gift and the work and the presence of God'.
He added that 'reconcilation among human beings is not unanimity... in which we all agree with each other on everything. It is where the vigour and life of the spirit of God wells up in so many ways and yet there is no jealousy, no anger, no bitterness, but only a common life seeking the will of God'.
Welby said that he was praying for 'the miracle of reconciliation' in the region, adding: 'What we have seen in the last week, a place of such complexity, in many places of such darkness, of such difficulty, of such entrenched hatreds, that it requires the work of God to change it.'
