The Church of England feels itself to be marginalised, excluded and neglected. This message, gathered from every diocese in the country, including dozens of bishops, members of Parliament, peers and academics, is relentlessly consistent.
It comes in a landmark report, to be published next Monday, which marks the most damning critique by the Church of a serving Government since the 1980s.
While Muslim communities are courted, funded and feted, the country’s majority Christian communities are barely given a second thought when it comes to Government focus on “faith”, the report says.
The report, called Moral, Without a Compass, says the attitude of ministers is particularly galling for the Church, which, the authors of the report say, has spent centuries pioneering welfare provision, in particular in health, education and care for the poor and marginalised of society.
Frankly, the CoE has nobody but itself to blame. Having hitched itself to the socialist bandwagon decades ago, in the naif hope that Marxists had fundamentally Christian values, it now finds itself used, abused, and tossed aside. In the meantime, the CoE has alienated its conservative base, the middle classes (except those who want school places), and compromised most of its core values. It is a tainted brand, with no future after the government finally decides to dipose of it completely and disestablish. Were there fewer legal complications to doing this, I’m sure it would have been done already. Perhaps extinction obviate the need for legislation.
When the fish stinks, look to the head. Has Rowan Williams been the worst ABC in history? Or have external events proved too much for the man? We have schism facing the CoE and disintegration facing the erstwhile Anglican Communion. It is readily evident that he is not up to the job and that his lack of ability, his temerity, is accelerating the crises. It is past time for him to go back to academia.
I think it really not accurate to accuse anyone of being the worst _______ in history. Even if they have been proven to be spectacularly bad at their job, there is always someone one can point to and say “they were worse!”.
That having been said, it is not inaccurate or wrong to point out how someone is failing at their job, in the hopes that said expose will prompt change for the better. Or if not, that provisions can be made to cope with the problem at the individual level to protect oneself and to survive as best as possible until change can come.
Jim Elliott