A week or so ago, I circulated to a few friends the picture above of Archbishops Rowan and Sentamu with my caption attached. I did not publish the picture because I thought it might harm the cause of defeating the Anglican Covenant, since diocesan synods in the Church of England are presently voting on whether to adopt the proposed covenant. If it was believed that the ABC would be forced to resign if the covenant was defeated in the CofE, and Dr Sentamu might be his successor, the members of synods might be deterred from voting against the document.
Today the ABC announced his resignation, and the BBC is already speculating on Dr Sentamu's chances of being appointed to replace him, so I doubt that my picture and caption is likely to influence the vote. In truth, I doubt that it was likely to influence the vote, had I published earlier.
Dr Williams's successor will be a political appointment, with the advice of the Prime Minister playing a decisive role.
Dr Sentamu has been closely identified with Dr Williams's efforts to find a suitable compromise in the row over the status of stand-in bishops.
But in any case, by the time Dr Williams's successor takes over, the women bishops row will probably have been decided.
In the political area, Dr Sentamu has firmly opposed himself to David Cameron. He has led Anglican opposition to the proposal to allow same-sex partnerships to be designated as marriages.
Not appointing Dr Sentamu would certainly attract comments that the Archbishop of York was being set aside on political grounds.
That might or might not be justified - but appointing a bishop who was outspoken in support of gay rights as Archbishop of Canterbury would probably make it impossible to restore unity between the Anglican Communion allied to Canterbury and Gafcon.The final paragraph in the BBC quote is laughable. "...outspoken in his support of gay rights as Archbishop of Canterbury..."?! Where does the BBC get its information?
H/T to MadPriest for the information from the BBC.
