The Telegraph is the original source of the story that Dean of St. Albans, Jeffrey John, is favored to be the next Bishop of Southwark. Dr. John (There is another with the same name and title in a different profession.) is in a same-sex civil partnership with another clergyman.
If you recall, some years ago, Dean John was appointed Bishop of Reading, and the date of his consecration was set, but because of the uproar amongst conservatives in the Church of England, and despite the fact that he stated that the relationship was celibate, Dean John was asked to stand down from his appointment by his good friend, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, which he did.
Jim Naughton comments on the latest story at The Lead
Thinking Anglicans posted several links to commentary on the story.
We'll know quite soon whether the story is true or simply misguided speculation, for the meetings to decide upon a candidate for the position of Bishop of Southwark take place today and tomorrow.
Adrian at Pluralist Speaks in his post titled "Restoration" gives us his words of wisdom. Of course, Adrian's post is not really about Dr. Jeffery John, but about Dr. John John. However, there are parallels....
Just wait until I discuss a chap called Geoffrey Jeffrey.
ReplyDelete(I kid you. I've only just thought of it. Unfortunately, when my dark mind only just thinks of something, it usually finds something).
I did read somewhere that RW was pushing for Jeffrey John to be Bishop of Southwark, which would be a nice corrective to some of his more recent pronouncements.
ReplyDeleteHowever the whole thing is still mere rumour.
Adrian, if there was such a thing as mind control, a mind so dark as yours probably should be put under constraints.
ReplyDeleteGeoffrey Jeffrey has a nice ring to it.
Cathy, of course, it's just a rumor, but it's an interesting rumor, and, if nothing else, the rumor occupied Adrian's dark mind for a spell and kept him from straying to an even darker place. Although, re his comment above, it may have already led him to a darker place. With Adrian, one never knows how these things will go.
ReplyDeleteDear Grandmère, the bit that caught my eye was the quote from the Tory Politician Cameron (I understand Tories are actual Conservatives, therefore they are philosophically somewhere to the left of Democrats in the US) at the end of the Telegraph article.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, Prime Minister (I understand this is a political position, not like a Minister in a Baptist Church) Cameron says, "But I think the Church has to do some of the things that the Conservative Party has been through – sorting this issue out and recognising (They don't seem to use a "z" in the UK) that full equality is a bottom line full essential."
I just can't get over the thought of a Conservative Politician who is more willing to stand by his moral convictions than "Rowan Who." What a wonderfully weird Nation the UK is!
Wade, David Cameron is a Christian and a man of moral convictions, and he is also a politician through and through who spotted along with other younger Tories that they had to modernise their line of thinking to make themselves a little less disliked by the electorate. So, his approach to the gay issue is in part a purely pragmatic one.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that I wouldn't be surprised if the Tories were to the left of the Democrats these days.
Wade, Cathy is correct. All three major parties in England are to the left of both Democrats and Republicans here in the US.
ReplyDeleteAnd Rowan seems to be to the right of all the major political parties in the UK and all in his church but the far-right. Apparently, he does not see "full equality as as a bottom line full essential".
A CHRISTIAN you say? Well, that explains it!
ReplyDeletePerhaps he's a Roman Catholic and already knows better than to listen to Bishops, Archbishops, Cardinals or Popes. In the Roman Church (If you consider the laity the Church) such clerics exist only to confirm the kids, ordain Priests and consecrate more Bishops, nobody really thinks a "College" of elderly gay men in red dresses should decide what women should be allowed to do with their own bodies after all. Except of course those who are in that club.
You know, what keeps occurring to me is that one day in the not too distant future the Evangelicals are going to realize that this nonsense is just plain unfair. They'll be staunch allies then I think, because they truly believe. In my own opinion, most of Rowan Who's troubles with them is due to his tendency to back down so quickly that it appears he has no true convictions at all. If he'd stood by his friends and his convictions he'd have won a lot of them over. Alas it's probably too late.
It appears to me that what we're seeing is Rowan's no longer able to get along by straddling the fence. It can't be very comfortable as the fence gets built higher and higher... It will be interesting to see what side Humpty falls on.
Rowan really needs a "tear down this wall" moment.
Grandmère Mimi, I think you're right except... I'm not sure left/right applies to the current Republican Party. The poor dears don't really seem to have any coherent Philosophy at all anymore. They still haven't figured out that the Tea Party types hate THEM nearly as much as the Democrats. Republicans are less and less a party that stands for anything, and more and more a party defined by what they oppose.
ReplyDeleteI hear David Cameron is a practicing Anglican.
ReplyDeleteRowan allowed himself to be bullied by the right when JJ was appointed Bishop of Reading. Once the Reform types knew that with enough pressure Rowan would back down, they grew bolder.
As for the Republic Party, their philosophy is still to oppose whatever Democrats want to do. They have no plan for the country.
Cameron is definitely an Anglican. We don't really have Roman Catholics in the UK - they were all burned at the stake.
ReplyDeleteI don't think RW is politically to the right, I just think he doesn't know how to cope with those who are and keeps trying to appease them, rather than tell them where to stick it. I also think he is deeply unsure on the gay issue, which is why he would prefer to hang back and keep talking about it in the hope that that will resolve it, rather than decisively move forward. He's annoyed with the Episcopal Church not so much because you consecrated a lesbian bishop but because you ignored the request to hold off for the time being, in my opinion. Not that that makes it better.
Cathy, I can't read Rowan's mind. I can only judge by his harsh policies regarding the US bishops in faithful same-sex relationships, which are surely to the right of many.
ReplyDeleteI also think he is deeply unsure on the gay issue....
In an essay written in 1988 titled "The Body's Grace", Abp. Williams wrote:
“If we are looking for a sexual ethic that can be seriously informed by our Bible, there is a good deal to steer us away from assuming that reproductive sex is a norm, however important and theologically significant it may be ... in a church which accepts the legitimacy of contraception, the absolute condemnation of same-sex relations of intimacy must rely either on an abstract fundamentalist deployment of a number of very ambiguous texts, or on a problematic and non-scriptural theory about natural complementarity, applied narrowly and crudely to physical differentiation without regard to psychological structures.”
Based on the essay and other writings, many are deeply disappointed in Rowan's policies today. He seems to have had different views on the gay issue back then.
Mimi, it's because he has in the past voiced different views that I think he is not so conservative today, just unsure what to do with the ultra-conservatives, who are not shy about putting the pressure on with their agenda.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't use words of one syllable if a word of five syllables will do, though, does he.
Judas only betrayed h i s chum once, just saying...
ReplyDeleteGöran, now we know. If the latest news is true, Rowan betrayed his friend twice.
ReplyDelete