Justin Welby: Curry's Royal wedding sermon 'blew the place open'

The archbishop of Canterbury has praised the sermon preached by Most Rev Michael Curry, primate of the Episcopal Church in the US (TEC), at the Royal wedding yesterday.

Archbishop Justin Welby said the service was 'tear-jerking'. Sky News

The sermon has been widely praised for its passion and truthfulness to the gospel. In conversation with Curry for Sky News, Justin Welby told him: 'I think what we saw in that is that preaching is not a past art, that the use of language to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ just blew the place open. It was fantastic. And you could see people just caught up in it and excited by it.'

The two both spoke warmly of the service itself and the happiness of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, with Welby – who led them in exchanging vows – saying: 'Everything went perfectly, the couple – it was a proper wedding, this was not theatre with a couple of pretty beautiful people in the middle, it was two young people profoundly in love with each other, committing to each other. It was just – it was tear-jerking, it was really beautiful.'

Curry said: 'They were making eye contact throughout, they were – one of the things I've learned as I've been ordained a long time, is, that when you do a wedding, talk to the couple. And they, their eyes and their smiles and their reactions were talking back. It was non-verbal communication throughout the whole thing. And you could watch them look at each other, and even when when they weren't talking, the way they looked at each each other, just sent the message, these people were in love. For real.'

News
Pastor says police officer warned him Bible verse could be seen as hate speech
Pastor says police officer warned him Bible verse could be seen as hate speech

A church leader was apparently warned by a police officer that a Bible verse displayed on the back of his campervan could be considered "hate speech" in certain contexts.

Younger generations lead surprising revival in Bible reading
Younger generations lead surprising revival in Bible reading

After years of steady decline, Americans are rediscovering the Bible — and young adults are leading the way.

A Christian response to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor's fall from grace
A Christian response to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor's fall from grace

The danger we run into when we read the public reports of the misdeeds of some person who has become the object of public disgrace is that we become tempted to entertain the idea that we are somehow better in the eyes of God than that person

Anglicans meet in India to tackle modern slavery
Anglicans meet in India to tackle modern slavery

More than a fifth of the world's currently enslaved population are believed to live in India.