From here:
I want to say at once that one of the biggest challenges is to follow a man who I believe will be recognised as one of the greatest Archbishops of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.
He is some one with a deep love for Jesus Christ, an infectious spirituality, extraordinary integrity and holiness, immense personal moral and physical courage, and of course one of the world’s principal theologians and philosophers.
To be fully serious, the church world wide owes him a great debt, more than it knows, and I shall be continuing to seek his advice and wisdom. I can only wish him, Jane and the family a wonderful end to his time at Canterbury and joy in their new roles.
One can only hope that he was simply being polite.
Rowan kept the ship afloat. It’s a rather difficult task when the crew is trying to mutiny and some of your high ranking associates are plotting agsinst you.
Indeed, Rowan is one of the preeminent theologians of this day. I admire his holiness, temperment and commitment to his ministry.
To say he kept the ship afloat seems something of an overstatement. There are now two parallel Anglican Communions, one of which wants to elect its own leader.
You can only contain conflict for so long before it explodes or begins to fester. It would have been better to deal with the conflict when it arose than try to suppress it as Rowan did.
Unfortunately Rowan tried to keep one foot in two boats which ended up not being good for anybody. One of the “preeminent theologians of this day” J.I. Packer was defrocked by Ingham as Rowan looked on. He bowed down to KJS instead of God.
Rowen has been irrelevant for years.
However, his legacy is one of capitulating the Gospel to modernity.
If he couldn’t endorse the traditional positions of the church, not only should he not have accepted the ABC mantle, he should have resigned as a priest.
I am sick and tired of priests excusing their aberrant faith positions under the banner of social conscience.