You became the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2003 at a particularly difficult time in relations among the different churches that comprise the Anglican Communion. There was even talk of the Communion being on the verge of fragmentation. Yet your attempts to keep all sides talking to one another have been notable. Could you tell us how it has been going, and what you see ahead of you?
I think that after the Lambeth Conference of 2008 many people felt that we found ways of talking to one another, and perhaps exercising some restraint and tact towards one another. And it was very significant that at the next meeting of the Anglican primates, which was in the early part of 2009, all major Churches of the Communion were represented.
Unfortunately, the situation does not remain there. The decision of the American Church to go forward, as it has, with the ordination of a lesbian bishop has, I think, set us back. At the moment I’m not certain how we will approach the next primates’ meeting, but regrettably some of the progress that I believe we had made has not remained steady. Alongside that, and I think this is important, while the institutions of the Communion struggle, in many ways the mutual life of the Communion, the life of exchange and cooperation between different parts of our Anglican family, is quite strong and perhaps getting stronger. It’s a paradox. We are working more closely together on issues of development than we did before. We have the emergence of an Anglican health network across the globe, bringing together various health care institutions. We have also had quite a successful programme on the standards and criteria for theological education across the Communion. So, a very mixed picture.
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Progress? Aiding and abetting the American unilateralism, he considers progress. Bah! Humbug! What isn’t dystopian in this statement is plain denial of reality.
[blockquote] Archbishop, you have often described a Bishop’s role as one that involves holding together diversity. How far have you been able to do this on these two questions?
Well, to the extent that the Communion has not fractured beyond repair and the Church of England is still engaged in shared discussion of these things, I don’t think I have yet failed completely! But time will tell.[/blockquote]
I disagree – I think he has failed completely and the next called Primates meeting will show this. If TEC’s PB comes others will not – if she does not come then that is still evidence of the fracture as TEC pursues its agenda heedless of the AC. Is the ABC an optimist or is his head in the sand? It could be that God has told him something and not the rest of us – there again that is what the leaders of TEC are claiming.
“I think that after the Lambeth Conference of 2008 many people felt that we found ways of talking to one another, and perhaps exercising some restraint and tact towards one another.” Of course it always helps in finding ways to talk with one another when one side has grown so weary of all the talking that they don’t show up anymore! Always amazing when really smart people say such patently silly things. Does he REALLY believe that Lambeth 08 was such a smashing success? Can he really be that clueless, or is he just being intellectually dishonest?