A 'hospital pass' is a term used in various sports to describe a pass after which the recipient is subject to unavoidable heavy contact from an opposing player, leaving the him or her liable to a visit to the nearest A and E.

This roughly describes what most commentators think has just happened to Justin Welby, incoming Archbishop of Canterbury. On his ‘in tray’ is an internecine conflict over sexuality, declining church attendance, messy internal bureaucracy, crumbling buildings, no money, secularisation etc, etc, etc. Barack Obama should think himself lucky.

While all of that’s true, there are other things to be said. Nearly all of the things which are usually seen as clouds over the Anglican Communion have silver linings. Welby will lead a church of global reach – it has 85 million members worldwide and is growing.

Even when it comes to secularisation, the difficult tenure of Rowan Williams has done nothing if not prove that there is an appetite for hearing what the Archbishop has to say.

As suspicious as many are of the Church as an institution, there is a deeper distrust of our political culture. The establishment and the Church and the public voice of the Archbishop of Canterbury go a long way toward meeting an appetite for a moral perspective in public life.

Paul Bickley | This article can be read in full at politics.co.uk