A Washington Post Article on Rowan Williams: Beleaguered Is The Peacemaker

…[Archbishop Rowan Williams’] latest proposal to hold together the warring factions, a two-track system that could give his rebellious U.S. Episcopal Church a secondary role in the Communion, has disappointed just about everyone.

“It’s well meaning but, I think, a futile attempt to paper over two irreconcilable truth claims,” said Bishop Martyn Minns, former rector of Truro Church in Fairfax City, who heads a group of congregations that has broken from the Episcopal Church because its members think that the church does not follow the Bible closely enough.

Those on the other side aren’t happy either.

“It doesn’t contribute to holding people together,” said Bishop Peter James Lee of the Virginia Diocese. “Even though he explicitly says this is not a first-class, second-class division, it feels that way.”

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Covenant, Archbishop of Canterbury, Episcopal Church (TEC), Global South Churches & Primates, Same-sex blessings, Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion)

12 comments on “A Washington Post Article on Rowan Williams: Beleaguered Is The Peacemaker

  1. Larry Morse says:

    Tobe a real peace maker, one must have courage, not a master of divigation and delay and qualification. The ABC is not a peacemaker, he is Buridan’s ass in lawn sleeves, an incongruous image for an impossible situationand a frozen man. Larry

  2. Richard says:

    What is the source of Kendall’s quotation that appears in the portion of the article not posted on t19? The sentence of interest reads:
    “‘We need a leader, and what we have is a withdrawn referee who is not only not on the field, he is way beyond the field looking at it with binoculars,’ said a conservative Episcopal blogger, the Rev. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina and a critic of the Episcopal Church’s recent positions.”

    I did a key word search on t19 but did not come up with a source.

    Dick Wire

  3. Chazaq says:

    [blockquote]what we have is a withdrawn referee who is not only not on the field, he is way beyond the field looking at it with binoculars[/blockquote]Wrong. This is a dangerous mischaracterization of Rowan and his vile agenda. At every step of the way over the past 6 years, Rowan has actively sided with, championed, aided, and abetted the Episcopalians in their relentless attack on orthodox catholic biblical Christianity in the global Anglican church. The consequence has been the horrific division, disintegration, and dismemberment that we have all witnessed, and it is going to get worse. Rowan is an active and willing accomplice, not some remote third party, as every action he as taken has shrewdly enabled his Episcopalian allies to continue their onslaught with him providing ecclesiastical top-cover. Absolutely incredible that anybody at this late stage thinks Rowan is remote from all this.

  4. stabill says:

    #3, Ummm…, No. Sorry that’s a copy. Perhaps the quote was given directly to the reporter.

  5. Kendall Harmon says:

    I was interviewed for the story in answer to #1.

  6. Jeffersonian says:

    I tend to agree with #2. I think a more apt Rowan metaphor is a butcher with his thumb on the scale.

  7. austin says:

    Rowan Williams, I’m afraid, is rather like Barack Obama. Himself a convinced liberal/leftist, he spins a line of moderation while the henchmen get busy behind the scenes with radical change. And when the well-meaning moderates wake up to what has been going on, they have already lost.

  8. John Wilkins says:

    heh #2: “Rowan and his vile agenda.” You are very funny.

    #7. You help me understand #2. By and large, the “conservatives” have lost the cultural battle. That is completely true, and explains the rage of #2.

    You might, however, consider blaming capitalism, that has unmoored (thankfully) most of us from the traditions we’ve inherited. As income increases, people decide they can also choose what they want from churches or religions.

    As the market marches on, goodbye orthodox Christianity. Sad, but inevitable, probably.

  9. Jeffersonian says:

    So, JW, how’s that ASA coming now that y’all are pursuing that market-driven new thing?

  10. Billy says:

    #8, JW: “By and large, the “conservatives” have lost the cultural battle.” What does that mean?

    Does that mean conservatives have lost the battle to keep our church from adopting the mores of the secular culture – I agree!
    Does it mean that conservatives have adopted such mores – I disagree! What do you mean?

  11. dwstroudmd+ says:

    Billy, I doubt JW knows, never having been constrained by the facts of Christian – orthodox Christian- growth outside the West. Oy, vey! This imperialistic view dominates the American rush to judgment that is the esse of the ECUSA/TEC/GCC/EO-PAC/Gay”church”.

    A little history or even the briefest foray into the facts on the ground as revealed by Philip Jenkins THE NEW CHRISTENDOM refute JW and his entire tribe of self-aggrandizers and their self-aggrandizement. It is however amusing that what was condemned in Bush and his alleged worldview is vaunted in themselves and their limited worldview.