Video can be found here. Some initial thoughts: Echoing what Clayton observed in a different thread, Abp. Welby's shirt is hideous. It looks like a pajama top that he plucked out of the dryer right before he stepped out on stage. I have to think that this sartorial choice was deliberate, but it's beyond me what the thinking was. The rolled up sleeves, the loose fit: it's not a "man of the people" image so much as it is a "it's really hot and I'm sweating" image. I found myself exercised at the "turn outward" part of the speech. Welby as much says that the primary issue of the conference, the issue upon which success or failure of the conference turns...will not be solved. He wants us to "turn outward" and address worldwide problems instead. My first impulse was to direct Abp. Welby to Mark 3:25: It's not clear to me how Abp. Welby thinks Anglicans can provide a unified front to the world when they can't even agree on basic doctrine in their own church. Later, Abp. Welby goes into the "being of the Church". I get what he's trying to say (the missio dei gets a mention), but the idea that this fractured and divided Church can address pressing world issues when they can't even keep order in their own house is ludicrous. It reminds me of those 20-something leftist kids who instruct the rest of us on how to "properly" live our lives while simultaneously living completely chaotic personal lives themselves -- unemployed, abusing drugs, sponging off their parents. Get your own house in order before you hector other people about the condition of theirs. "Crises do not offer you the opportunity of not making a choice." Name a moment in history when there wasn't a crisis going on somewhere. Crisis is the normal state of affairs on this fallen globe. (In fact, "crisis" is just another day ending in "y" to most people. Utopia is literally the Greek word for "no place" because it does not, and cannot, exist.) Whenever I hear a progressive talk about "justice, equality, and freedom", I remind myself that they usually mean the exact opposite of that. Freedom in leftist politics means freedom to choose the bullet or the rope when the revolution comes, comrade. (This whole part of Abp. Welby's speech is just eye-rollingly naive.) Applause-line falls flat; you can almost see the producer pantomiming "Please clap!" offstage; clapping duly begins. More self-hating limousine-liberal climate-economic claptrap. Every single person in the audience probably has a laptop and an iPhone, flew to the conference on a jet airliner, rented a car, and is staying in a nice first-world hotel. (I suspect the African delegations, who have first-hand experience with the sort of thing Welby is going on about, are rolling their eyes harder than I am.) Welby's paternalism towards the Third World is his signature trait in a lot of ways; he can't seem to help himself. If you have to reassure people that you won't lie, that doesn't speak well about your credibility. Ultimately this speech was pretty meh. Part of the problem is Abp. Welby's presentation style -- he's polished (as he should be after so many years of giving speeches), but not particularly dynamic. His humor always seems forced; he's the kind of guy who has to rehearse jokes. Topic-wise, nothing surprising. I didn't think he'd dwell on the homosexuality issue at any length, and he didn't. Christo-environmentalism got a lot of attention, but I suspect as a topic for futher discussion it'll be a big nothing. The issue of homosexuality will continue to suck all the oxygen out of the conference and will continue to be the only thing attendees and observers really care about.