Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, is embroiled in a new crisis within the Church of England over the decision to block the appointment of a gay cleric as bishop of Southwark.
Liberals and mainstream Anglicans are furious that the archbishop has once more failed to exert any leadership over mutinous forces threatening to split the church over the sensitive issue of homosexuality.
....
One senior cleric said: "The time of reckoning has come for Rowan. The events of seven years ago have bitten him hard in the very week women bishops comes to the crunch. He should realise there are greater considerations, like truth, justice, openness, fidelity to the rules and all those things the church proclaims. Many are dismayed by his constant capitulation to the fringe noisemakers.
....
Another senior cleric said: "The system of appointments is busted. What is needed is more transparency over how appointments are made. Obsessive secrecy is damaging the church."
Giles Goddard, chair of the liberal Inclusive Church movement, who is himself a gay vicar in south London, said: "This is a disaster for the church – another example of shooting itself in the foot. It would be much better to have a more open system."
There's more.
I'm sorry for the turmoil in the Church of England, but, as I've said before, I would not give these stories and commentary nearly so much attention were Rowan not attempting to set up a top-heavy structure resembling the Roman Catholic Church for the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part. And one can hardly say that he's doing such a great job of leadership in the Church of England that we would want him for an Anglican pope, if we at all wanted an Anglican pope.
And Pluralist strikes again.
Rowanov Treetri: I am afraid there was a problem with a pipe.
John John: What, a smoking pipe, or you called a plumber?
As usual read the rest over there.
In my professional life, the product is the result of the process: to produce a better quality product, improve the process.
ReplyDeleteBut in the Anglican world, what is the process? It appears to be either a secret or an authoritarian decree. Net, one cannot improve the product.
The solution, given the pre-conditions? Find another world, the Anglican world is not producing quality.
Pfalz prophet, the church is not a business, much less a factory which produces products.
ReplyDeleteHow we measure the success of a Christian institution has more to do with building the Kingdom of God by serving the least amongst us. The Anglican soap opera is a distraction from our mission to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves, as Jesus taught us.
My main reason for wanting to hang in with the Anglican Communion until we are forced out is for the sake of our brothers and sisters in other provinces who see the Episcopal church as a lifeline and do not want us to leave. Many of those brothers and sisters live on the margins, and we cannot abandon them, IMHO.
But we are to produce a product - The Kingdom of Heaven. That's our mission, not just "making more Christians."
ReplyDeleteWe are the tree, our fruit has been rotten - and what's another word for fruit - produce. Rowan is the end product of what we've been content - all of us - to consider the fullness of Christianity. The result is a sad joke - the Church's only product is . . . church.
"The LGBT “inhabit space in the church” in the same way that sawdust or insect parts or other adulterants inhabit poorly-made sausage. If you don’t notice it you might wonder why you feel a bit ill. If it’s present in enough quantities to be prominent and unavoidable, you’ll be disgusted and might be severely sickened. The right thing to do at that point is to get your stomach pumped" - one Doug Stein, commenting on Jeffrey John at SF.
ReplyDeleteStrangely, that's exactly how I feel about Doug Stein the pathetic little anti-christs who comprise the SF type of "christian."
ReplyDeleteMark beat me to it.
ReplyDeleteThat anyone would say something like that about anyone in a Christian church is scandalous.
ReplyDeleteI'm stealing that quote by the way.
Doug Stein doesn't understand the place where "clever" becomes "cruel". People with low social and emotional maturity levels often don't.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is not Doug Stein or any of the other Trolls and Bottomfeeders over at SFiF or any of the other sites that spew vitriol and hatred.
The problem is Rowan - the ABC who would be Pope. Or, at least, King of the WWAC.
WV: "gultery". I love that word.
Interesting association in Mr Stein's mind between being gay and getting one's stomach pumped. Ms Hay called him later for the unchristian sentiment in this post.
ReplyDeleteYup, it has become far clearer this past few days that Rowan has sat here to long for any good he has been doing. Question is where Sentamu's sentiments really lie. Insofar as he's played his cards at all, he's played them very close to his chest. Suspiciously so to my mind.
I see that General Synod begins debate on Women in the Episcopate tomorrow and that, according to AP, it "has scheduled 15 hours of debate about provisions for those in the church who refuse to accept women as priests or bishops". Civil Partners' benefits are on today's agenda. There is a live audio connection through the sidebar of the link above.
ReplyDeleteSentamu's opinions on lesbians having children through IVF:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-495082/New-IVF-law-remove-fathers-family-Archbishop-Sentamu-says.html
(I know that's the Mail, a deeply dubious paper, so here is Sentamu's own piece in the Guardian on the subject:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/nov/20/whenarightiswrong)
He worried me with this one since he seems to be implying that lesbians cannot make good parents, though he is not saying so directly. Perhaps he only has these reservations in the context of IVF treatment but he also took two and a half months to say anything at all about the Ugandan proposed anti-gay bill, which is pretty slow given that he was born there.
He says the church values gay people. But then Rowan Williams says that.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/nov/20/whenarightiswrong
ReplyDelete(the Guardian link again - it got cut off)
wv - devilds - it got cut off by devilds!!!!
It got cut off again!! How strange.
ReplyDeleteLapin, what a piece of shit! Sarah Hey obviously didn't delete the comment. Did she publicly ban the commentator? She was quick to delete my comment and ban me for quoting the Gospel.
ReplyDeleteCathy, hyperlinks work quite well and don't get cut off.
As for Sentamu...Tutu he ain't.
"What is needed is more transparency over how appointments are made. Obsessive secrecy is damaging the church."
ReplyDeleteWhat we said yesterday, but I'll add that transparency and openness is about as English as kidney pie is American. It's like my mother says, who now lives in CA, "They may be pushy and rude, but at least you know where you stand." We consecrate gay bishops because we, the TEC as a whole, mean it, not because some cabal orchestrated it, nor as some political ploy.
"He should realise there are greater considerations, like truth, justice, openness, fidelity to the rules and all those things the church proclaims. Many are dismayed by his constant capitulation to the fringe noisemakers."
Rowan hitched his cart to the wrong horse. He's made an idol of unity at all cost, and sold out everything and everyone else to achieve it, which means pandering those who scream the loudest, and kicking his friends who have always been willing to play ball. The Americans and TEC have never threatened to quit the game and take our ball, and dollars, and go home. However, the ones who had tantrums and threatened to leave if they didn't get what they want are leaving anyway. So, in spite of all his Neville Chaimberlain-esque pandering, he's losing the conservatives. Meanwhile, he's kicked TEC so much that we've simply stopped caring. I read the ++KJS's letter as coming very close to saying, "Do what you will, we're done here, and we're moving on, with you or without you." Mind you, she was the one who personally helped push through B033, just days after her election as PB, at great cost to herself, as an attempt to the dialog open and stay in the game. Despite her efforts she's been repeated vilified, demonized, and insulted, mitergate being only the latest instance, so she ain't gonna stick her neck out for him again. Thus he's also losing the Americans who were trying to play his game. The same is happening in his own CoE, where he's sold out Jeffrey John and women clergy for the same idol. Yes, he sold out his convictions and all sense of fair play in the name of a chimerical unity, and as a result faces losing the whole ball of wax.
"I would not give these stories and commentary nearly so much attention were Rowan not attempting to set up a top-heavy structure resembling the Roman Catholic Church for the Anglican Communion..."
My gut tells me the Rowan is not really power hungry, or trying to play Pope. Rather, he's painted himself into a corner. His ham-fisted attempts at pandering, appeasement, and finger-wagging at the wrong people have earned him less unity, rather than more. In growing desperation he's left with his last resort, increasing authoritarianism in an attempt to impose unity from above. I think is he's a very smart and ultimately sincere man, but with a skillset entirely unsuited to the situation in which he finds himself, and he's floundering and lashing out in all the wrong ways. I'm trying to have sympathy for the man, even as I'm angry at all that he's done.
These thoughts have been rattling around my head for a while, so FWIW I wrote them down here.
Wilfried, I bumped your comment up to a post.
ReplyDeleteMy gut tells me the Rowan is not really power hungry, or trying to play Pope. Rather, he's painted himself into a corner. His ham-fisted attempts at pandering, appeasement, and finger-wagging at the wrong people have earned him less unity, rather than more. In growing desperation he's left with his last resort, increasing authoritarianism in an attempt to impose unity from above.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this.