It’s not yet 10am and the 64-year-old bishop has already presided over Holy Communion at St Paul’s, hosted an overnight visit from the new bishop of Durham and held a breakfast meeting to discuss diocesan links with Nigeria. He is now on his way to address the pupils of a Church of England secondary school in a deprived part of north London, then it’s a dash to King’s College London to appraise the dean in a meeting with the principal, then back home to counsel a US priest distressed by tensions within the Anglican communion. The previous evening he was up late addressing the General Synod, the legislative body of the Church of England.
“You can’t survive unless you believe in early hours,” he says. “As soon as the morning office starts at 7.30am you are available to people.” He never attends the morning office in the cathedral, however, because the new order of service is used and Chartres, an implacable traditionalist, prefers the Book of Common Prayer. Instead, he rises at 6am and says morning prayer by himself in a back room in the deanery before it fills up with the staff who occupy most of the building.
Too bad that he isn’t called “Richard Cantuar.”
I thought it a pretty trivial piece that said next to nothing about defending the faith or anything to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ. About what I’d expect from the “Guardian” though. He does seem a decent sort though, and I thought his homily at the recent wedding was good.
Wouldn’t it be good to know the source of the quote, “A bishop’s destiny is to be tossed about by storms while struggling to resolve the tension between leading and serving his people”?
Another hat in the ring.
I love the smell of goose fat and gravy in the morning.
With what we do to these bishops, it is amazing that any of them can put two thoughts together. At the end of a day, this one must feel like his brain has been put through a blender — jumping from one spiritually and emotionally disconnected thing to another. A most impressive bishop. Imagine what might be possible if his schedule were properly paced and focused.