THE visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Redditch created a wave of excitement from the Kingfisher Shopping Centre through to St Stephens Church.
Hundreds of people thronged to meet him, shake his hand and he was more than happy to have selfies taken with people.
The Archbishop, Justin Welby, was on a three day visit to the diocese of Worcester and Dudley and Bishop John Inge of Worcester said he had asked to come to Redditch after hearing of the good work carried out by local clergy in the town.
He was clearly taken with the place as well, his scheduled flying visit on Saturday afternoon stretching way beyond the allotted time.
Speaking afterward the Reverend Paul Lawlor, town centre chaplain and vicar at St Stephens said: “It’s just marvellous to have a sense of wonderment about the place; he was speaking to everyone as he went, and rather than just saying, well that’s done now, the question is, how do we keep the conversation going?
“We need to create spaces to gring people together to get people to talk and the Church can hopefully be a facilitator in the this.”
