This extraordinary bolt from the blue has driven the UK news agenda today not so much because of the sensation but because it is a very human and touching story. Moreover proximity to Churchill is always newsworthy now, more so than when the national hero lived. Justin Welby has handled what he claims was a bombshell with great dignity and in so doing has affirmed his Christian faith. The general view is that this is an uplifting tale with a very happy ending.
Beneath it lies an important message to which the conservative right wing of the Anglican church, a persuasion which like obsolete software no longer updated operates outside the frame of modern thinking and human generosity, must heed. The message is this. Nobody can be blamed for the circumstances of their birth. This includes parents, gender, sexual orientation, colour, the whole thing. So to discriminate against women or gays within the church or in the ministry to them is not only plain wrong, it is unchristian and cruel. The word is wicked.