The Rt Rev Justin Welby, who has a strong background in business and
finance, has spoken warmly of his support for the Living Wage.
His comments about the issue came at a press conference to announce
his appointment to the role of Archbishop of Canterbury in the New Year,
and coincide with the inaugural Living Wage week.
Earlier in the week both Labour Leader Ed Miliband and Conservative
Mayor of London Boris Johnson had shown their support for the campaign,
which began over a decade ago when churches and other civil society
organisations came together under the banner of Citizens UK to campaign
for better wages for working people.
The new Archbishop commended the campaign and especially the role
that churches have played in winning more than £100 million for the
lowest-paid families, noted the Contextual Theology Centre in East
London.
After pointing out that his current Diocese of Durham pays staff the
Living Wage, Bishop Welby declared: “[It's] an area in which the church
has really made a useful social contribution, a really useful one… it’s
something we should be shouting about.”
The Archbishop-elect also told Channel 4 television news that he
supports ethical banking - he cited the Cooperative Banking as one
example - and he said that it was important that taxation was structured
so that everybody, notably the corporate sector, "pays a proper
contribution to society."
Asked earlier today by the BBC whether he would be 'political',
Bishop Welby responded that Christianity meant a strong commitment to
social justice alongside presenting the gospel and inviting people to
respond to it.
In an interview with the Rev Dr Giles Fraser in the Guardian
newspaper earlier this year, Bishop Welby also commented on the global
protests about economic injustice, and particularly the camp outside St
Paul's Cathedral.
"Occupy reflects a deep-seated sense that there is something wrong,
and we need to think very hard about what's wrong... [t]they were right.
Absolutely. And everything we are hearing now says that," he declared.