The white smoke may not yet have gone up, but the 16 members of the Crown Nominations Commission are trying to decide who should succeed Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury.<\/p>\n
It is difficult to imagine such a large committee coming to a very sensible decision, particularly when those assembled under the chairmanship of Lord Luce will have been chosen with an almost painful inclusiveness: High Church bishop matching Low Church bishop, a woman priest matching an evangelical layman and so forth.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, they must come to a decision, knowing that whoever they choose must make decisions that risk pulling the whole Church apart. Rowan Williams is handing on to his successor something like a vase with an irreparable crack. One false move over the question of gay marriage, gay priests or women bishops and the handsome old antique will fall apart in his successor\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n