…[Archbishop Rowan Williams] does not have authority over other Anglican provinces and, even if he did, it is too late for him to get tough with them. Everyone respects him, but nobody listens to him. While Glasspool’s election needs approval from a majority of dioceses before the consecration can proceed, her victory shows how committed the Episcopalians are to same-sex relationships, in spite of vociferous opposition.
The conservatives are also pressing ahead with their vision of what an Anglican church should look like.
However one feels about the direction or values of either, neither can be faulted for their consistency, integrity and principles. If only the same could be said for the archbishop.
“Everyone respects him, but nobody listens to him.”
If no one listens to you, then no one really respects you or your opinions.
I wish more people respected +Rowan Cantuar, but it seems that few really do respect him. Unfortunately, he has brought us to the point where there is little he can do to stop the schism that TEC started in the 90s with the ordination of openly homosexual men and women to the priesthood. If you will correctly remember, the +Righter trial was the proximate cause for the first break away anglican groups that found refuge in African or Asian bishops.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
The same line used by Vallely in the Independent: that RW was quicker to criticize this election in LA than to condemn the sinister antihomosexuality law in Uganda. But this is such an illogical and bizarre line of argument: the LA election is a decision of the church and as its leading pastor of course it is RW’s job to comment. The proposed Uganda law is the decision of the state and the archbishop of Canterbury has no real locus in the matter.
I agree with both #1 & 2. Perhaps with one refinement. Many people still respect ++RW as a brilliant academic theologian (although he seldom writes anymore).
But probably the only people who still respect him as an archbishop with unique potential to exercise a leadership that he’s consistently abdicated are the liberal or broad church folks who admire his remarkable ability to thwart any really effective discipline by the other Instruments of Unity. Obviously, this liberal Muslim journalist writing for an extremely liberal paper in the UK has lost whatever respect she may once have had for him.
As have I, long ago.
David Handy+