The rise of the African church could have made Canterbury an important player in international relations””not exactly a rival to Rome (Catholicism’s one billion adherents make that unlikely) but at least a second European center with which Africans would have felt a relation and to which they could have looked for intellectual and ecclesial authority.
Instead, hardly anyone notices when the archbishop of Canterbury is about to be replaced and the unity of Anglicanism is about to be shattered. The job of the archbishop of Canterbury has always been something of a high-wire act, delicately balanced between the Protestant impulses of the church on one side and its Catholic impulses on the other side. And, from time to time, various archbishops have lost their balance (notably when John Henry Newman slipped away to Catholicism in the battles over the Oxford Movement in the 1840s).
This time, unfortunately, it is the wire itself that is breaking….
[blockquote]What the archbishop of Canterbury needed to hold together was a church divided between such African heroes of the faith as the retired archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, and such established masters of the Anglican bureaucracy as the primate of the Church of Canada, Fred Hiltz. [/blockquote]
The full range of Anglicanism, from A to B.
I think I disagree with something in almost every paragraph in this piece, very surprising given its author whom I greatly respect.
But despite this and other mistakes, I think this piece ultimately captures the tragedy of lost opportunity that is Anglicanism and that will be Rowan Williams’ enduring legacy.
An interesting article — I have a quibble with the author’s notion that there is some sort of “unity” that Rowan Williams has been able to maintain. But I appreciate and agree with the overall tone of bleakness regarding the Anglican Communion.
I found this sentence interesting:
RE: “The moving force behind the rumor of Williams’s impending retirement seems to be Richard Chartres, bishop of London—an interested party, it should be noted, given that he is a leading candidate to succeed the retiring archbishop.”
I thought Bishop Chartres was not really a good candidate because of his age?
Good article. I hope the future for the AC is not as bleak as indicated by J.B., however.
As for Richard Chartres, bishop of London, I would like to hear from those who know more about his possible candidacy or his positions on the leading issues.
Btw, I still don’t see why, if Rowan Williams had taken a strong stand in support of TWR or the Dar agreement, he couldn’t have held the AC together, even if some very liberal churches couldn’t go along. Losing 2% has to be better than losing 50%, if it came to that.
The relationship between Canterbury and the African churches is, historically, an absolutely fascinating one. The great British historian Andrew Chandler and I are working on a new biography of Geoffrey Fisher, abp of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961. He’s the person who did so much to set up independent provinces in Africa, really paving the way for the modern AC. That book will be coming out late next summer, I hope, in Ashgate’s Archbishops of Canterbury series.
[blockquote]He pursued that end, however, mostly by trying to make himself an utterly neutral figure, beginning his reign as archbishop, for example, by leaving the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, an important British pro-life group.[/blockquote]
Personally, I don’t view Williams as a neutral figure at all. The “progressives” have gained control of the Communion apparatus despite being a small minority.
[blockquote][i]Galatians 6:7[/i]
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.[/blockquote]
God’s laws are immutable. Interesting that the Archbishop turned from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, and the Communion took a turn from vitality.
I also don’t see the ABC as neutral. His perfidy at Dar es Saalam effectively ended any drive for Communion discipline. This was not by accident. The ABC did everything he could to advance the cause of TEC.
[blockquote] And with Williams no longer at the helm, little will be achieved at the next Lambeth Conference. [/blockquote]
How droll.
Although I appreciate the author’s work in other places (such as his articles on the Protestant Mainline in the US in First Things), this article just doesn’t seem to grasp the complexity of the relationships involved in the current AC. Nor, do I think it is a fair representation of either Williams or Chartres. Both men are extremely astute, and well-respected within the CofE. And, although I wish that Williams had been more forthcoming with denunications of the maverick moves of the Episcopal Church (to which I belong) and the Anglican Church in Canada, his tenure as Archbishop cannot be summarized, or brushed aside, so easily. Williams is not in an enviable position. Regardless of anyone’s allegiances, in William’s position at the center of a communion going in numerous directions, no one in that office could make everyone happy. Williams, it should be said, has kept us (for the most part) at the same table.
Chartres is not given his due in this article either. He remains the orthodox bishop of a sprawling, urban diocese at the heart of Britain. He’s well-respected by many on either side of the “great debates.” I recently had lunch with a leading British Methodist figure who had nothing but praise for Chartres. For those of us on this side of the pond who want a better glimpse of him, he will be at the Mere Anglicanism Conference in Charleston next month. Perhaps by listening to these men, we might gain a better insight into the workings of the AC than we did through this article by Jody Bottom.
RE: “Regardless of anyone’s allegiances, in William’s position at the center of a communion going in numerous directions, no one in that office could make everyone happy. Williams, it should be said, has kept us (for the most part) at the same table.”
There’s no question that whatever decisions are made by clergy or bishops “you choose who you lose.” The ABC *did* choose who he lost — and it was a bad choice. Had he chosen otherwise, he would have lost far far fewer and far less admirable people.
I am a newcomer to this blog, so I shall behave myself! Nonetheless, I ask the question: Are we a church, a communion, or a rabble of contending political/theological ideologues? I am sure that Rowan Williams has made many mistakes, but I do believe that God has worked through him. I am skeptical of pundits/prophets/seers of Anglicanism’s future. The world is riven with very confident extremists and agendas. In Yeats’s often-quoted line: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” In the very imperfect state of Christendom today, the Anglican/Episcopal way still comes up the best in my book. In his own way, Rowan Williams is trying to be a saintly man: he has stared into the abyss that is the world and has engaged in that great won/lost cause–the Church! I’ll go down or up with the Anglican/Episcopal ship, knowing that God will do the working of miracles, not I. I am quite close to the Roman Catholic Church, and there is a great deal of pain/imperfection there. Wherever one goes to church, there will be huge existential problems. It’s a matter, I suppose, of what particular kind of cross one wishes to be crucified upon. Our uniquely Anglican form of poverty is not fashionable these days! Christians are full of bluster and indignant certainty! They feel that certainty and vigor are expected of them! Were the extremists to quiet down, the Church’s work of reconciliation could continue. But the great restless party of Push & Pull wants schism, dissolution, notoriety! God bless Rowan Williams! He is guilty of having tried to plaster up the cracks in the Anglican facade with poverty and love. The cross signifies both victory AND defeat. Jesus’ party didn’t exactly win in the first ballot, did it? The Jesus tribe got routed in the Garden of Gethsemane! The way of Christ is the way of poverty, obscurity, and huge obstacles, all of which we can find at our local Episcopal/Anglican church!
Write down all your positive qualities. As you jot down your entries, you will begin to acknowledge your own unique and wonderful qualities and eventually feel better about yourself. What’s more, you will become more creative, more energetic, more beat, and happier!
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