He has done his best to keep everyone within the Anglican fold since he was made Archbishop, but now he is going to say what he thinks. And what he feels.
The Church shouldn’t be just about issues, but about people, he seemed to say.
In what many read as a poignant tribute to his best man, a journalist who recently committed suicide, he made this case powerfully.
“He [Jesus] will be with those people in the press gallery who are trying to keep their minds on their business while dealing with any number of complex personal issues, who may be afflicted by private anxieties, grief, and losses that will never be noticed by those who take them for granted as they go about their business.”
By the end of his sermon many of the congregation were close to tears. Others were celebrating that the archbishop seemed like a man transformed.
It will, indeed, be interesting to see what an ABC roused from years of inertia and somnambulism might actually do. I predict that traditionalists will not like it, not one bit.
This reminds me of Rodney King’s “can’t we all just get along” moment.
“By the end of his sermon many of the congregation were close to tears.”
A state some of us have been in for years.
And after years of dithering, and according to this reporter/opinion piece writer (this isn’t exactly objective journalism) a lack of leadership consistant with his own values, we should expect to see a reborn Rowan Williams? There is nothing, nothing, nothing to suggest this might occur other than this writer’s wishful thinking.
I’m reading his sermon as the precursor to “change with us or there’s the door.” Mind, I’m one who’s long held onto the hope that +++Rowan would ensure a place in the Church for conservative-leaning moderates like myself. Have I gone off the cynical end?
You should see the rubbish Ruth Gledhill posted on her blog. I swear to God, she’s like a schoolgirl with a crush.
“By the end of his sermon many of the congregation were close to tears.â€
“A state some of us have been in for years. ”
Hear hear! Since the days of the earlier Arch-bishops….
This comports with my experience of the ABC. When the sharks were circling in the diocese of Lexington, Rowan stood strong for me and told my persecutors to back off. This is the man I know and it is why I stand for him.
Tory, you see things a little one-sidedly, don’t you? Unless you think that the vulnerable people in the churches who did not approve of gay clergy were being protected by the ABC when they were taken to the cleaners in court.
I can’t imagine you actually believe that the ABC is standing as the unbiased protector of both liberals and conservatives? If so, show me where he has stood up strongly for either side, or at least to carve out a place in the chruch for both sides.
I genuinely would like a straight answer.
JM, whether I see things one-sided or not is for others to judge. I can only speak of what I know. And what I know was that the Bishop of Lexington and his cronies tried to deep six me and Rowan would not let them. He defended me when he did not need to. This is what I know, not what I merely hypothesize.
Does this mean I agree with Rowan in all things or in how he has handled this particular crisis, well no, of course not. But I also know he was handed a mess of mostly ECUSA’s making which has been brewing at least for forty years. I also know that his inititiation of Windsor and the Covenant, shocked the revisianists. When they still talked to me (which since I have come to Truro for some reason have stopped), they told me they were shocked by Rowan’s insistance of Communion discipline and discernment. Again, this is not theory, but what I know from actual conversations with current leaders of TEC.
Frankly, Rowan is too hegelian in his leadership style for my liking. But what I know of him personally is nothing but support and encouragment.
And, oh by the way, I am one of those clergy who has been taken to court by loving liberals.
Tory, I don’t question your experiences. I just hope you are right about the ABC’s place in the bigger picture, that we have simply not yet seen the primus inter pares spring into action. I am anything but a conservative cheerleader. I respect their conscientious objection on the gay issue, as do I respect those who would have it otherwise. What I find odiously objectionable is the manipulation by those in power (using hierarchies, the courts, and propaganda) of those with whom they differ. I believe it is our lust for power, not our convictions (on either side) that is tearing us apart.
JM, I don’t know if the ABC will pull a rabbit out of the hat, or even what that might look like. I do agree with you that it is our lust for power, and those whose conviction it is that they should have power, that is tearing us apart. This is TEC’s gift to the communion.
Agreed, Tory.
Elves: the sermon is now posted at the Archbishop’s site.
http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1881
Tory,
Thanks for sharing your experience.
I, too, have confidence in the Archbishop.
# 12 “I do agree with you that it is our lust for power, and those whose conviction it is that they should have power, that is tearing us apart.”
And all along I thought it was something as simple as the advocacy of a false gospel. Silly me!
Jonathon Wynne-Jones re Sentamu’s defense of the ABC:
“He was offering him a hand to climb out of the “waterless pit” that his Anglican “brothers” have put him in.”
So, his brothers put him in this position of having to be a leader? I thought that appointment was made by Her Majesty the Queen. Was he misled so as to not realize what he was getting into?