Bangalore, October 21: As Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion entered the confines of the Bishop Cotton Boys’ School in the City on Thursday evening, hundreds of faithful Christians greeted him with prayers that reverberated throughout the atmosphere.
And later, when a programme in his honour commenced with a prayer and was punctuated by greetings from heads of various Christian Dioceses of Karnataka for over two hours, the Archbishop remained patiently attentive.
The audience were more than awed by his persona. Every time, his name was read out, it evoked a huge round of applause. Predictably, he received the most passionate ovation when he was called to address the gathering. Although he spoke briefly, the Archbishop of Canterbury sought to delve on a crucial aspect of our civilisation - human rights.
He emphasised that human rights should be seen in the context of human dignity. The Archbishop said the values of unity must be upheld for peaceful co-existence.
“Human dignity ought to be protected at any cost. It’s important that the critical issue of human rights is viewed in terms of its relation with the right to self-respect,” the Archbishop of Canterbury, who leads the third largest group of Christians in the world, said.
Viva il Papa! Whoops, my mistake! He's the head of the first largest group of Christians in the world.
Anyway, our Sweet friend David@Montreal posts the following on his blog:
Am I just imagining it- the faint whiff of post-colonial condescension to William’s making this pronouncement overseas? To say nothing of the blatant hypocrisy of this coming from this particular individual whose own actions would appear to indicate a casual or only occasional acquaintance with what human dignity entails. Coming at a time when:he continues to tolerate the prissy waffling of traumatized misogenists within the ranks of his own Church’s clergy over the consecration of women bishops; essentially dismissing the vocations of certain sisters to serve in this capacity, discounting both their lives and faith and implicitly admitting that the C of E is not ready yet to deal with more than one half of the human race as dynamic, living human beings living valid lives of faith sealed by their baptism.
All right now, I didn't say that. David said it. You can read the rest of his mild (?) rant at his website.
And I'm not sending you over there just because David calls me "blessed Mimi, Queen of the South". Such blandishments don't influence me at all, when I link.
The right to self-respect? I'm guessing Rowan blew through that a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteI think David's rant is indeed mild compared to my reaction to the Arch-Episcopal chuztpah.
ReplyDeletePaulas, I suppose that in his own mind, Rowan finds justification for what he does in the name of unity, even though his attempts to hold the Communion together mean throwing some folk under the bus. And, in the end, he will not have unity.
ReplyDeleteCounterlight, I am surprised when sweet men like David hold forth in a righteous rant. I especially admire "prissy waffling of traumatized misogenists within the ranks of his own Church’s clergy".
Ouch!
Yes, prissy waffling is particularly evocative.
ReplyDelete