Category Archives: Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams and the middle ground

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In his Presidential Address, Rowan Williams has said something to upset just about everyone. I think he deserves credit since his seems to be such an effortless gift; others of us have to work at it.

Liberals are upset because Rowan is still not “fully including” homosexuals in the life of the Anglican church, even though he did issue a rather grovelling apology – perhaps what was missing was an obsequious Obama Bow™.

Conservatives will be upset because, among other things, he seems to think that TEC and the ACoC have exercised genuine restraint, because he jumbles together outside intervention and litigation as if they were equivalent wrongs and because he still doesn’t get it: the ACoC and TEC have become sub-Christian institutions.

Such is the problem of trying to find middle ground when there really isn’t any.  Rowan Williams might be able to thrive in the effete, refined halls of academia but he is quite incapable of leading the Anglican communion to anywhere but ruin.

Rowan Williams and the “R” word

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From the Times:

The whole world, and not just Britain, is broken, with continents such as Africa feeling forgotten and uncared for, the Archbishop of Canterbury said in the heart of New York’s financial district yesterday.

Any money men who might have happened in to Trinity Wall Street to shelter from the snow would have found a different sort of chill as Dr Rowan Williams delivered his lesson.

Standing at the lectern of the famously wealthy US Episcopal church, which lies at the head of Wall Street, the leader of the Anglican Communion condemned the “straw man” of self-interest.

His theme was that financiers, wordsmiths — in fact anyone in the Western world connected in any way with economic reality — should look at themselves in the mirror and repent.

It is hard to argue with Rowan’s assessment of Western money moguls whose modus operandi is grounded in avarice, self-interest and utilitarianism. However, Rowan’s asking secular financiers to repent stands in stark contrast to his response to heresy in the Anglican church where, instead of repentance, he seeks “conversation”.

Rowan Williams on the last decade

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Rowan Williams, Utopia Chaser, bemoans the last ten years:

The last 10 years have been “gruelling and terrible” but they should not deter people from helping the poorer and needy living thousands of miles away, says the archbishop of Canterbury.

In his new year message, to be broadcast tomorrow, Dr Rowan Williams will say that people can still make a difference in spite of the “terrorism, war, natural disaster and financial collapse of the last 15 months”.

There was one bright spot, though:

the archbishop also expressed his disappointment at the lukewarm commitment to achieving the millennium development goals.

Rowan Williams: climate pantalone

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Mark Tooley’s remarks on Rowan’s Copenhagen performance:

Church prelates at Copenhagen like Rowan Williams and Desmond Tutu spread climate fears, tiresomely echoing secular European conventional environmentalism.

Harsh prophecies of climate catastrophe need to be weighed against the impact on still-developing nations. Environmental fears should not excuse perpetuating poverty.

The primary religion on display at the Copenhagen summit often resembled Earth worship. Christians are called to guard God’s creation while not deifying the Earth or prioritizing nature over humanity.

Whether waving hammer-and-sickle flags or calling for a worldwide one-child policy of strict population control, many activists in Copenhagen seemed more self-absorbed than actually concerned about helping the poor.

Archbishop Williams professed to witness to God’s hope, but once there, he merely echoed secular rants about endless environmental degradation.

I put it down to the fact that Rowan comes from Swansea. I attended university in Swansea and the weather was consistently dreadful: I remember it snowed in June once – it really did. Rowan is trying to Swansify the rest of the world.

Rowan Williams: please don’t do it. Pretty please?

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Rowan Williams obsequiously begging diocesan bishops not to allow another gay bishop to be consecrated:

The election of Mary Glasspool by the Diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan bishop elect raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole.

The process of selection however is only part complete. The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications.

The bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold.

Coincidentally, our readings this morning included Luke 3:1ff where John the Baptist, in a moment of seeker-sensitive tenderness, exhorted the crowds with “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Rather than be direct, Rowan implores the bishops for a period of gracious restraint. What a load of old bollocks. The TEC should get on with what everyone knows is eventually inevitable and Rowan should stop snivelling long enough to employ John the Baptist’s technique – tell the truth; he has nothing to lose at this point.

Rowan Williams and the carbon gospel

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Secular dictionary definition of “Gospel”: The proclamation of the redemption preached by Jesus and the Apostles, which is the central content of Christian revelation.

Rowan Williams’ definition of “Gospel”: Less carbon dioxide.

Some 3,000 Christians gathered in Westminster for an ecumenical service before joining tens of thousands of campaigners in a march through the capital today to call on the UK to take the lead at next week’s UN climate change summit in Copenhagen.

Dr Rowan Williams said the human race had until now not been very good news for creation, as he warned that the failure to tend to the health and wellbeing of creation was already having negative effects on the lives of the most vulnerable communities in the world.

He said: “We are to be bearers of good news for the world that God has made. Not for any one little bit of it, not any one community at the expense of others, not even for humanity at the expense of everything else in the universe. Good news for all of creation.

Rowan Williams pleads with the Vatican on women bishops

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Rowan Williams, ever in search of the impossible dream, is in Rome:

The archbishop of Canterbury today pleaded with Roman Catholics to set aside their differences with Anglicans over the issue of female bishops, insisting there was more uniting the denominations than dividing them.

Rowan Williams was giving a lecture in Rome before Sunday’s meeting with the pope, their first encounter since the Vatican’s surprise announcement of a special institution for traditionalist Anglicans wanting to convert to Catholicism.

In his address at the Gregorian University, Williams said the Anglican communion was proof that churches could stay together in spite of their differences.

Where has Rowan been for the last 3 years? The Anglican communion is proof that the church can’t stay together once internal differences become as stark as they are now.

I understand that once Rowan has convinced the Pope of the benefits of women bishops he will be travelling to Saudi Arabia to plead the case for women imams.

Philip Pullman re-writes the Crucifixion

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From the Telegraph:

Philip Pullman, the author of His Dark Materials, has written his own version of the New Testament in which the story of Jesus is given a “different ending”.
The writer has penned an alternative Bible passage imagining a different fate for Christ, who was executed by the Romans.

“He has written what would have happened if Jesus had had a fair trial,” a friend told The Daily Telegraph’s Mandrake column.

“He knows it will be controversial, but he has some serious points to make.”

Pullman is due to read his “account” of Christ’s last days at the Globe theatre on Thursday as part of an event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Reprieve, an organisation which campaigns for the rights of prisoners.

Books by Pullman, who is an honorary associate of the National Secular Society, have been criticised by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. His critics often cite an interview in which he reportedly said: “I’m trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief.”

The fantasy novels His Dark Materials, with their religious allegories, have been seen as a direct rebuttal of The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis, the late Christian author, which have been criticised by Pullman.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has, however, proposed that His Dark Materials should be taught as part of religious education in schools.

There is nothing surprising about this since Pullman is an atheist, supporter of the British Humanist Society and actively pursues an anti-Christian agenda, saying things like, “I’m trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief.”

One does wonder, therefore, why Rowan Williams thinks Dark Materials should be taught in schools as religious education; I can only surmise that Rowan, having not quite managed to single-handedly destroy the Anglican Church, is looking for some help.

To be serious – really – I should have thought that Graham Taylor’s Shadowmancer, which is explicitly Christian, would have been a better recommendation for Rowan to make. Perhaps it hits too close to home: the villain, Reverend Obadiah Demurral, is an Anglican vicar.

Rowan Williams’ Ginger Biscuits

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Or as we used to call them, Ginger Nuts; a particularly appropriate epithet in this case.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has revealed his recipe for ginger biscuits which forms part of a new cookbook bringing together dishes from a range of Christian groups.

Dr Rowan Williams’s tasty treats are the Church of England’s contribution to Loaves, Fishes and More – a 70-recipe collection which aims to raise funds for Christian Aid.

A group of climate experts call for……

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Well, actually, make that a group of ecclesiastical political correctness apparatchiks who know nothing whatsoever about science, climate or normal life, led and hosted by the Anglican Ken Dodd impersonator:

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At a meeting hosting by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Baha’i, Jain and Zoroastrian faiths called on the UK and G20 governments to fight for an ambitious deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions at UN-led talks in Copenhagen in December.

A statement issued by the groups meeting at Lambeth Palace, London, said catastrophic climate change posed a ”very real threat to the world’s poor and to our fragile creation”.