Leave aside for the moment the question of how one can be “too” quintessentially anything – for “quintessence” is what it says it is: the very quick and soul of a thing. But, as the modern services demonstrate only too clearly, our church authorities are not too familiar with the English language, what will go into it and what won’t.

Despite his or her title, the new bishop will be based mainly in Leicester, one of the first majority black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) cities in the UK. In the 2011 census, only 45% of the city's population identified as white British.

But there also needed to be a physical memorial to those murdered.

'There needs to be a memorial because remembering helps us not repeat. But the best memorial we can build is a country at peace with each other and at peace with itself,' he said at a prayer vigil at Westminster Abbey with leaders representing Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Archbishop Welby was in Lambeth Palace when he heard the news.

He declined to comment on the move until his six-month waiting time is up.

It comes after the long-standing critic of the Church left his post as Queen's chaplain in January following a row over a Quran reading in Glasgow Cathedral. The Shropshire-based priest criticised the decision by Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of St Mary's Cathedral, for inviting a reading from the Islamic holy book at the Epiphany service on January 6.