Archbishop of Canterbury braves the crossfire

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Archbishop of Canterbury braves the crossfire


By George Pitcher
Last Updated: 11:01am BST 01/07/2008

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is caught in the crossfire between two regiments led by very different ideologies. Out of Africa comes an evangelical militia that marches under the banner of Biblical authority, chanting anti-homosexual slogans. Three of its leaders have landed in London and are rallying their troops at All Souls, Langham Place, today. Then there is a crack unit of Anglo-Catholics, as many as 1,300 strong, who will formally deliver a letter to Lambeth Palace ahead of this weekend’s General Synod in York, threatening to quit the Communion over proposal for consecrating women as bishops.

Dr Williams will weather the storm

This belligerent scene might conjure images of Dr Williams in a foxhole, where legend has it there are no atheists, praying for a miracle and scribbling last testaments in his journal like a war poet.

Actually, he is less beleaguered than that. The Gafcon conference of dissenting evangelicals in Jerusalem last week has been seen for what it is: a post-colonial attempt to seize Anglican power from the northern hemisphere by those who essentially misunderstand the nature of such “power”. The Archbishop of Canterbury is primus inter pares, holding a loose and often fractious federation of worldwide churches in common communion. He doesn’t dictate ideology from the centre, as those who seek to usurp him wish to do. In doing so, they are essentially un-Anglican.

The Anglo-Catholics are altogether more sophisticated, but no more of a real threat to Anglican unity. The extreme opponents of women bishops are marshalled by the “flying bishops”, those who were put in place in the early nineties under an Act of Synod to serve communicants who could not in conscience recognise the ministry of women priests.

These high-church Christians understand the nature of Anglicanism and prize its worldwide unity over personal ambition. They also cherish democracy and will not split from the Church simply to get their own way. They want protection in legislation, like the Act of Synod, from women bishops, rather than a simple code of conduct as proposed. That’s where next weekend’s debate over women bishops will focus.

In both these arguments, there are solutions to be discovered, so long as the parties remain in communion with one another. Far from the devil, Dr Williams may find the Christ in the detail of his documents relating to these “rows”. The Church of England is fond of speaking of evangelicals being “down the candle”, while the Catholics are towards its higher end. Dr Williams will be burning the candle at both ends in coming weeks, but it remains one that lights his way.


Archbishop of Canterbury braves the crossfire - Telegraph