The Shame of the Anglican Church: Rowan Williams
[Even] Liberal Anglicans accuse Archbishop of inept leadership
Jan 21/05 - UK/Telegraph - The Archbishop of Canterbury and other senior Anglicans have been accused of weak and dishonest leadership in a book by a group headed by a diocesan bishop.
Dr Rowan Williams and his colleagues are described as "frightened" or "inept" and are criticised for turning a minor crisis over homosexuality into a "full scale disaster".
The criticisms are significant because the book has been compiled by the Modern Churchpeople's Union, a
prominent liberal pressure group whose president is the Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt
Rev John
Saxbee.
Dr Williams is personally attacked for failing to criticise anti-gay conservatives at the 1998 Lambeth Conference, the 10-yearly gathering of Anglican bishops which upheld a
traditional line on
homosexuality.
The new book is the union's response to the Windsor report, which was drawn up by a commission appointed by Dr Williams in an attempt to avoid schism over homosexuality.
The book, whose contributors include the Dean of Southwark, the Very Rev Colin Slee, is due to be published next month before the General Synod debates the report.
A few days later, the Church's primates will hold a meeting in Northern Ireland that could determine the future of worldwide Anglicanism.
The book's preface, by the Rt Rev John
Shelby Spong, a retired American bishop and outspoken liberal, is scathing about the leadership of the Church.
He said that Dr Williams's predecessor, Dr George Carey, had displayed "inept leadership" at the last Lambeth conference while Dr Williams "chose to play it safe" by failing to speak out against anti-gay "bigotry".
Bishop Spong said the Windsor report was "nothing more than a pathetic ecclesiastical attempt at damage control" and was "a dishonest effort to achieve cheap unity by sacrificing reality and truth".
Archbishop becomes druid
Aug 5/02 - BBC - The new Archbishop of Canterbury has been inducted as a druid in a centuries-old Celtic ceremony.
Dr Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Wales, said that he had been "saddened" by the misrepresentations about the ceremony, which sparked concern about pagan links.
"Some people have reached the wrong conclusion about the ceremony," he said.
"If people had actually looked at the words of the hymns and text used they would have seen a very Christian service."
Dr Williams became a member of the highest of the three orders of the Gorsedd of Bards - a 1,300-strong circle of Wales' key cultural contributors - in a ceremony at this year's National Eisteddfod celebration of Welsh culture in St Davids, Pembrokeshire.
The ceremony, which took more than an hour, started with a procession from the main Eisteddfod Pavilion to a circle of stones on the edge of the site.
Dr Williams, 52, wore a long white cloak without any headdress as he arrived at the back of the procession.
'Paganism' row
The actual ceremony started with a trumpet fanfare and the partial sheathing and unsheathing of a 6ft 6ins sword.
Hymns and poems were said in Welsh before around 50 people were made druids.
But it's not quite like that. - Actually, it IS quite like that !!!!!!!!!!!!
Spin of the Story: The "Nice Druid" Theory
BBC- Aug 6/02 - Dr Rowan Williams, the next Archbishop of Canterbury, has joined the Gorsedd of the Bards at the National Eisteddfod. He has been criticised for dabbling in paganism. But it's not quite like that.
The setting for the first meeting of the "druids" of the Gorsedd of the Bards? A mist-shrouded moor amid standing stones? A forest clearing by a mistletoe-wreathed ancient oak?
No. It was Primrose Hill, London.
From its birth in 1792, the Gorsedd of Bards of the Isle of Britain - the white-cloaked organisation Dr Rowan Williams joined on Monday - has found itself confused with the pagan rites of druidism.
By joining the druid bards - which include the Queen, opera singer Bryn Terfel and Welsh rugby star Gareth Edwards - Dr Williams has been attacked for "dabbling" in a non-Christian faith.
But Dr Cathryn Charnell-White, an expert on the group's founder, Edward Williams, says: "There's no pagan link there at all."
"The Eisteddfod druids are Edward Williams's druids. Other druids stem more from the traditional or popular vision of druidism."
Gay community's hopes
July 02 - BBC - Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Wales, has been officially named to succeed George Carey as the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Reverend Richard Kirker, General Secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM), reflects on what he hopes to see from the new archbishop.
This news is as astonishing as it is welcome.
Lesbian and gay Christians have many good reasons to believe that Rowan Williams will be our friend and an unapologetic ally rather in the way that South
Africa's inspiring Desmond Tutu has become.
For over 20 years Rowan Williams, a noted theologian, academic and author, has eloquently advocated that Christianity and homosexuality should be viewed as wholly consistent with each other.
God's gift to human beings includes, for some, homosexuality as well as for others, heterosexuality.
To him lesbian and gay people should not be made into a 'problem' nor, of course, should they be stigmatised, demonised or marginalised.
Neither should clergy be expected be celibate just because they are gay or lesbian.
Clear principles
These may already seem self-evident truths to most people in Britain and the Western world but sadly, in the Churches and other religious traditions, the opposite is all too common and the new archbishop is not going to find it easy to win over all those who disagree with him on these fundamental matters of doctrine, church order and justice.
He has made these points in the way he knows best, as a theologian. This was a radical position to adopt in the 1980's and marked him out as person prepared to put principle before career.
His close personal friendships with gay people over 30 years marks him out as the first Archbishop of Canterbury who is entirely at ease, publicly and privately, with a section of society that the Church has often either tried, at best, to ignore or patronise and at worst to openly discriminate against.
In fact his integrity and honesty made him deeply unpopular with the leadership of powerful sections of the Church of England - including George Carey - who remain to this day antagonistic towards self-affirming lesbian and gay people as well as towards those who stand with us as friends.
A brand-new translation of the Bible – praised by
Britain's
archbishop of Canterbury, that nation’s senior Christian voice –
flatly contradicts traditional core Christian beliefs on sex and morality.
Titled "Good as New," the new Bible is translated by former Baptist minister John Henson for the "One" organization, to produce what the group calls a "new, fresh and adventurous" translation of the Christian scriptures.
The 104th archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams – leader of the Church of England – describes it is a book of "extraordinary power," but admitted many would be startled by its content.
Liberal to head Church of England
Jul 2002 - BBC - A liberal and often controversial bishop has been chosen as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, religious leader for 70 million Anglicans worldwide.
The Archbishop of Wales, Rowan Williams, has been confirmed as the successor to Dr George Carey in the Church of England's top post.
Prime Minister Tony Blair chose Dr Williams from a shortlist of two names, put forward by the Church after months of debate.
Dr Williams said he approached the job with a sense of awe but hoped to give the Church a renewed confidence in the 21st century.
"If there's one thing I long for above all else, it's that the years to come may see Christianity in this country able again to capture the imagination of our culture, to draw the strongest energies of our thinking and feeling," he said.
Paying tribute to his predecessor, he said Dr Carey had provided a "fine model of listening and interpreting", shaping the position as a "ministry of reconciliation and mission".
Dr Carey, who is currently in the United States, said Dr Williams had "great abilities"
and he greeted his appointment "with joy".
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, welcomed the appointment of Dr Williams in what he called "challenging times" for Christian leaders.
As a theologian of distinction, a man of deep spirituality and a gifted communicator he will, I have no doubt, prove to be a force for great good in this country and throughout the Christian world," he said.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said Dr Williams had been chosen because of his "wisdom, intellectual stature and deep spirituality".
Some Anglicans have warned that Dr Williams' appointment could split the Church, with many conservatives strongly against some of his views - in particular on the ordination of women and gay priests.
Frank Knaggs, a member of the conservative evangelical group in the church's synod, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:
"We do have problems with his radical agenda.
Anglicans: Africa's Top Anglican Warns U.S. Church
The spokesman for bishops who claim leadership of a majority of the world's Anglican Christians denounced the gay-rights policies of America's Episcopal Church on Saturday, following a two-day caucus in Atlanta with U.S. conservatives
2002 Retro -Archbishop of Canterbury to retire
Jan 8/02- BBC - The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George
Carey, has announced he will retire before the end of the year.
Dr Carey has led the Church of England and an estimated 70 million Anglicans worldwide for 11 years and could have stayed in his post until he turns 70 in 2005.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, has announced he will retire before the end of the year.
Dr Carey has led the Church of England and an estimated 70 million Anglicans worldwide for 11 years and could have stayed in his post until he turns 70 in 2005.
But the 66-year-old is set to step down in the autumn, after taking part in the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations.
In a statement Dr Carey said: "By the end of October I shall have served 11 and half years in a demanding yet wonderfully absorbing and rewarding post.
"I feel certain this will be the right and proper time to stand down.
"I look forward to exciting opportunities and challenges in the coming months, and then to fresh ones in the years that follow."
Lambeth Palace said Dr Carey will carry on with all his duties as normal up to his last day in office on 31 October.
Commenting on the announcement, the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, praised Dr Carey's achievements and said he would be greatly missed.
He said: "Archbishop George Carey and I are good friends and I have appreciated very much our collaboration in ecumenical endeavour.
"Dr Carey has had to live through some difficult times as Archbishop of Canterbury.
"As leader of the Anglican Communion he emerged as someone of immense integrity, zeal and courage."
Women priests
Dr Carey has had an eventful and often difficult reign since he was appointed the 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury in 1991.
His main achievement was to oversee the first ordination of women priests in 1994 and manage the deep divisions it created within the Church of England.
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