IT HAS been a busy week for church news. On Wednesday evening of last week, the conclave of cardinals elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis, as successor to Benedict XVI. Less surprise surrounds the enthronement of the Most Revd Justin Welby in Canterbury yesterday: his nomination was announced last November, and he became Archbishop at the start of February. The two denominational leaders, none the less, begin their new ministries concurrently. It will be fascinating whether their progress brings them, and their Communions, closer together.

Many of the signs are encouraging. Although Pope Francis has been refined in a hotter crucible than Liverpool and Durham, the dirty war in Argentina in the 1970s, Archbishop Welby's encounters with violent groups in Nigeria and elsewhere have placed him in similar danger on occasions. These experiences have left both men with a degree of impatience with the small beer of church controversy. This is the first requirement of an effective reformer. Pope Francis marked the new era when he declined the ceremonial red cape worn by his predecessors, reportedly remarking: "Carnival time is over." His choices of vesture have since shown him to be determinedly simple. His political choices are likely to be more complicated, but, again, they are based in the world outside the curia. In his inaugural homily on the feast day of St Joseph, he praised the saint because "He can look at things realistically; he is in touch with his surroundings; he can make truly wise decisions." The evidence is still scant, but the inference that Pope Francis will attempt to bring to the papacy the concerns of his chosen namesake seems sound.

Archbishop Welby has sent a similar sartorial message, eschewing episcopal purple, as his predecessor, Lord Williams, did, and retaining his second-hand cope and mitre, a gift from the widow of the former Bishop of Peterborough, the Rt Revd Ian Cundy. There was a humility, too, about his prayer pilgrimage of the past few days, in which he appeared before hundreds of people not to attract their praise but to elicit their prayers. From his interview this week, two things are clear. First, he knows that he is not a pope: he has limited power or self-determination, and must therefore pick up the agenda given to him by his Church. He makes a careful distinction between his opinions and the policy of the Church that he represents. Second, he has a financier's approach to risk: if you risk little, you gain little. As he embarks on this next, risky phase of his ministry, he admits to being inspired by the "God of risk", who risked sending his Son to the earth in the form of a helpless baby, reliant on others for his nurture and survival.