ARCHBISHOP ROWAN WILLIAMS TO BECOME BARON WILLIAMS OF OYSTERMOUTH

The Queen has been pleased to confer a peerage of the United Kingdom for Life on the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Rowan Williams Lord Archbishop of Canterbury upon his retirement from the See of Canterbury.
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Rowan Williams will be created a Baron for Life by the style and title of Baron Williams of Oystermouth in the City and County of Swansea.

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 Oystermouth (a corruption of the Welsh name Ystum Llwynarth or Ystumllwynarth) is an electoral ward and a village in the Mumbles community and also the City and County of Swansea, Wales.

Thanks to a Facebook friend for the link to the announcement of the conferring of the peerage.

'DEAR ROWAN'

From Ann at Comprehensive Unity:

Dear Rowan:

A piece of advice from someone who has lost battles in church. Stop being a whiner or that will be your legacy -- grumpy old has-been. Accept the fact that it was neither the "radical liberals" nor the "hard line conservatives" who sank your dream. It was doomed from the beginning - not punitive enough for those who read the Bible selectively and not enough space for the Spirit to lead us into things we could not bear before (John 16:12).

Those who voted against the Covenant were not rejecting you, it was not all about you. Regular faithful church members voted against it once they read it and began to think about the ramifications of the entire document. The ACO and your arguments boiled down to "trust us" we know what we are doing and you don't, or we need it to save the communion, or it won't really change things. These are not facts but coercion.

It was not based in Anglican theology - a balance of scripture, tradition and reason. The last section had no mechanism for enforcement except a very fuzzy set of ideas centered around a small group of people. Anyone could grind any other province to a halt just by raising a complaint. The complaints were not limited in scope. They could come from any place on the spectrum of Anglican practice.

Think about it - detach your ego from Covenant. Read what people are saying now that it is no longer on the table. Perhaps you will understand why we worked to get the facts out in public - not just have people vote because someone tells them to vote a certain way with "trust me."


Yours truly,
Ann
The Rev. Ann Fontaine

Yes.  Amen.  Kudos to you, Ann.

Shorter version: Get over it.  Get over yourself.

A PERTINENT RANT

Jonathan Hagger on Facebook:

Following the Holy Spirit's destruction of his personal tower of primatial babble, Archbishop Ozymandias should resign today, and stand down today. He has wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds (probably millions) flying theologians and bishops round the world, arranging conferences etc., etc. which, as Jesus Christ said, should have gone to the feeding of the poor or the spreading of the Gospel.

But there is another reason why he should stand down now. He has spent the last six or so years acting as if the Covenant was already in place. He sacked theologians from communion think tanks, he banned a duly elected (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit which has been proved conclusively by time) bishop from attending the Lambeth Conference. He has flown all over the world bossing other provinces around. He has been a despot.

And his church has overwhelmingly told him (and their friends throughout the world) that this is not the style of church and church leadership that it wants or considers in keeping with its catholic/protestant identity. Therefore, his church has told him that everything he has done over the last six years has been bogus. Can he carry on with such a complete lack of confidence in him as shown by those he is supposed to SERVE? Well, if he was a politician he would be out. As he is a Christian bishop and we are Christians, we will pretend this covenant thing didn't happen and let him enjoy his hobnobbing with the Queen this year.

Rowan Williams was not a good archbishop. He was a lousy archbishop. Possibly the worst archbishop this country has known since archbishops of Canterbury stopped launching bloody crusades against other countries (which I believe was at the end of the 14th. Century).

Now I didn't write the words above; I merely copied and pasted, so don't blame me.  I don't even know enough about the history of the Church of England to vouch for the final paragraph.  See?

Jonathan (aka MadPriest) blogs at  Of Course, I Could Be Wrong....

ANGLICAN COVENANT - COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Archbisop of Canterbury Rowan Williams



Bishop James Jones - Presidential Address - Diocesan Synod March 2012 from Diocese of Liverpool on Vimeo.

Six dioceses in the Church of England will vote on the proposed covenant this coming Saturday, March 24, 2012:

• Blackburn
• Exeter
• Guildford
• Lincoln
• Oxford
• Peterborough

I'm told the video by the Archbishop of Canterbury will be shown at synod in the Diocese of Lincoln before the vote on the proposed Anglican Covenant with no accompanying visual giving the opposing view.

ARCHBISHOP OKOH RESPONDS TO ARCHBISHOP ROWAN's RETIREMENT

From the Church of Nigeria website:

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd and Rt. Hon. Dr. Rowan Williams took over the leadership of the Anglican Communion in 2002 when it was a happy family. Unfortunately, he is leaving behind a Communion in tatters: highly polarized, bitterly factionalized, with issues of revisionist interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and human sexuality as stumbling blocks to oneness, evangelism and mission all around the Anglican world.

It might not have been entirely his own making, but certainly “crucified under Pontius Pilate”. The lowest ebb of this degeneration came in 2008, when there were, so to say, two “Lambeth” Conferences one in the UK, and an alternative one, GAFCON in Jerusalem. The trend continued recently when many Global South Primates decided not to attend the last Primates’ meeting in Dublin, Ireland.

Since Dr. Rowan Williams did not resign in 2008, over the split Lambeth Conference, one would have expected him to stay on in office, and work assiduously to ‘mend the net’ or repair the breach, before bowing out of office. The only attempt, the covenant proposal, was doomed to fail from the start, as “two cannot walk together unless they have agreed”.

For us, the announcement does not present any opportunity for excitement. It is not good news here, until whoever comes as the next leader pulls back the Communion from the edge of total destruction. To this end, we commit our Church, the Church of Nigeria, (Anglican Communion) to serious fasting and prayers that God will do “a new thing”, in the Communion.

Nevertheless, we join others to continue in prayer for Dr. Rowan Williams and his family for a more fruitful endeavour in their post – Canterbury life.

+Nicholas D. Okoh

Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria

Don't hold back, Abp. Okoh.  Tell us what you really think.

The Nigerian bishops use the phrase, "two cannot walk together unless they have agreed," time and again to justify their decision to "walk apart" from the churches in the Anglican Communion with whom they do not agree.  Is the quote from the prophet Amos in the KJV?  Not really.  The words that come closest to Abp. Okoh's quote are in the form of a question.

Amos 3:3-8

KJV

Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
 
I first heard of the phrase from Abp Peter Akinola, who said, "The Bible says that two cannot walk together unless they are agreed."  The Bible says no such thing that I can find, therefore it appears that Abp Okoh quotes his predecessor, rather than the Bible, when he uses the words.  The two other translations below wouldn't really make the case for walking apart at all.  Of course, people cannot walk together unless they agree to walk together, but they do not have to agree about everything in order to walk together.  I find the apparent misattribution of the words to the Scriptures annoying in the extreme.  Besides, even the GAFCONites do not agree on everything,

NRSV

Do two walk together
unless they have made an appointment?
 
NIV

Do two walk together
unless they have agreed to do so?

Abp Okoh's claim that the Anglican Communion was "a happy family" back in 2002 when Rowan Williams became Archbishop of Canterbury is absurd.  The beginning of the end of the "happy family" began at least as early as Lambeth 1998.

COALITION STATEMENT ON THE RETIREMENT OF ARCHBISHOP ROWAN WILLIAMS

LONDON – The No Anglican Covenant Coalition wishes to thank Archbishop Rowan Williams for his tireless commitment to unity in the Anglican Communion across these difficult ten years. We share with him hope that we will achieve greater love towards one another in the Communion and that we might be enriched by our links across the world.

We wish him every blessing in the next phase of his work as Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and will keep him, Jane and the children in our prayers as they make this transition.

The No Anglican Covenant Coalition is an international group of Anglicans concerned about how the proposed Anglican Covenant would radically change the nature of the Anglican Communion.

noanglicancovenant.org

The Revd Dr Lesley Crawley (England) +44 1252 820537
Dr Lionel Deimel (USA) +1-412-512-9087
The Revd Malcolm French (Canada) +1-306-550-2277
The Ven Lawrence Kimberley (New Zealand) +64 3 981 7384
The Revd Canon Hugh Magee (Scotland) +44

COULD IT HAPPEN?

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.

PREY UNCEASINGLY

Alas, must Rowan make do with the floor, rather than a prie dieu, because he's not a 'real' archbishop in the eyes of the pope?

The proposed Anglican Covenant is, in part, an attempt by the Archbishop of Canterbury to gain the approval of Pope Benedict and ease the way into a closer relationship between the Vatican and Canterbury. You see, we Anglicans are, at present, a diverse lot, a messy communion of autonomous churches, and Rowan wants to gather us into a 'real' Anglican church vis-a-vis the church of Rome. He should know that the attempt is similar to the old cliché of trying to herd cats. Besides, no matter what Rowan does, the pope will not accept him as a 'real' archbishop, nor will he accept Anglican orders as valid. Even if the ABC joined the ordinariate or converted to the RCC, he could not be a bishop, much less an archbishop, because he is married.

Anglicans decided nearly 500 years ago that they preferred an autonomous church, the Church of England, which was not under the authority of Rome. Why is Rowan so anxious to curry favor with the RCC, especially after the recent shabby treatment of only very short notice by of the powers in the Vatican before the predatory RC ordinariates were set up in England to woo away disaffected Anglicans? Why try to foist the covenant on the churches in the Anglican Communion partly to 'relate' better to Rome? We (at least a good many of us) want to be in communion with other Anglican Churches, but we do not want to be a worldwide Anglican Church.

Clever and very funny photoshop from The MadPriest Internet Chop Shop.

LOUIE CREW RESPONDS TO ARCHBISHOP ROWAN

Louie Crew, founder of Integrity, makes great good sense with a few, clear, well-chosen words as he cautions against probable punitive consequences of adopting the Anglican Covenant. Geaux, Louie!