Three weeks after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, condemned the “frightening” Coalition, David Cameron’s wider family is lending him support. .
Viscount Astor, who is married to the Prime Minister’s mother-in-law, Annabel, has made a rare speech in the House of Lords, calling for an end to the Church of England’s privileged position in public life.
Lord Astor proposed that in any reform of the Upper House, the Church should lose its unique position on the Benches Spiritual. “Other churches and faiths should be represented here,” he said.
Although embarassed Anglicans and others have been falling over themselves to defend Rowan Williams, he spoke out on our behalf, without consulting us, without authority from us, and without producing any theologican basis for his attack on the coalition.
This Marxist uses the position he has and the money we pay him to advance his own agenda, which has nothing to do with us, does not do the job we pay him to do and is a continuing liability.
He now brings Indaba to General Synod. I hope Synod censures him and rejects his stooge +Dover again.
Down with Indaba, down with manipulation, down with Rowan.
So, if the British government no longer selects the ABC who will? And if the British government no longer decides there is no reason for the CofE to decide for all Anglicans.
I am assuming that if the CofE no longer had a privileged position with the British government it wouldn’t make any sense for the British government to select the ABC or have anything to say about the internal structure of the CofE. It sounds like Anglicans will need a vision statement, (aka covenant), goals and objectives and some kind of accountability. Wouldn’t that be a novel concept …
#2
[blockquote]if the CofE no longer had a privileged position with the British government [/blockquote]
Yup – that is what happens when you shout at people – they stop listening to you. We can thank motor-mouth Williams for that.
There is a message in this for the liberal christians who dominate the episcopacy in CofE – Is this really what you want?
You chose a trendy pop-theologian with strong left credentials as your Primate of All England, and where has it got you? He has openly attacked the government on ground of dubious relevance to Christian doctrine (but apparently indulging his own personal political beliefs held since his Uni days), and now within a few weeks, that government is looking at downgrading CofE influence in the House of Lords.
Its not hard to see who is responsible for this move against your privileges – Rowan Williams. But in a deeper sense, you are responsible, O liberal English Anglicans, because Rowan is your mouthpiece.
#4 — I thought it was Tony Blair who pretty much chose ++Rowan Williams? Maybe the pope put him up to it, considering that Blair converted shortly after leaving office.
Teatime2,
Tony Blair certainly had a hand in it. But all he did was choose between the orthodox and liberal candidates put before him. The point I am making is that the liberals in the Church of England were the ones who chose Rowan Williams (and no doubt also used maximum influence to ensure that the PM chose him over the much more stable and effective Michael Nazir-Ali).
My post above was addressed to those liberals, since it appears that Rowan’s views and attitudes (which they largely share) are leading to a result that they do not want. The lessening of the status and privilege of CofE bishops was never part of liberal plans, but it is the inevitable result of the way they and ABC have been carrying on.