jdd commenting on the story that the Archbishop of Canterbury gave the Presiding Bishop permission to preach and preside at Southwark Cathedral on the condition that she not cover her hair.
A quote from Williams’ one-time teacher seems apropos (a Scottish Episcopalian, no less):
“My own experience is Anglican; and it is almost a commonplace to remark that in practice the Anglican Communion, and especially the Church of England, is the least authoritarian of the Churches. Yet the ecclesiastical temper encourages its leaders, encourages also those who undertake the spiritual direction of its members, to allow the end to justify the means. ‘It is expedient that one man should die for the people’: in these words of Caiaphas we catch an indelible impression of the attitude of mind of the responsible ecclesiastic. They express the major premise of a great many practical syllogisms whose conclusion is always the same; that the individual shall be broken, or that his or her claims shall be disregarded,” (“Authority and Freedom in the Church,” in Donald MacKinnon, The Stripping of the Altars: The Gore Memorial Lecture delivered on 5 November 1968 in Westminster Abbey, and Other Papers and Essays [Collins; The Fontana Library, 1969], 53).
Elsewhere in the same lectures, he further comments: “”The end justifies the means’: so Caiaphas, when he gave counsel, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people, ‘that the whole nation perish not.’ It is not enough to dismiss his argument as that of a hard Realpolitiker governed by raison d’etat, eager to preserve theocracy. The danger he foresaw was real enough, the threat to place and nation…At the heart of the Christian story we may see the opposition of Christ and Caiaphas: of the one who asked as a rhetorical question what shepherd, if he lost one sheep, would not leave the ninety and nine to seek it out; and the one who gave counsel that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. Whatever may survive the demythologization of the highly questionable myth of apostolic succession, empirical study of Church history reveals how often and at what depth of commitment the way of the Church has been that of Caiaphas rather than Christ…The word Establishment suggests inevitably, and particularly in the setting of Westminster Abbey, the constitutional position of the Church of England…[and] such a position is clearly incompatible with post-Constantinian realities and is widely recognized as being so…” (“Kenosis and Establishment” in The Stripping of the Altars, 26, 28-29, 29).
Would that the apple had not fallen so far.
Southwark has posted Katharine’s sermon in text and audio formats, along with the links to the readings for the day. An extract:
I come from a notorious place…. One congregation made a warm enough welcome that the women of the night returned frequently. Other congregations acted more like Jesus’ fellow dinner guests – “who let her in here?” The women didn’t return to those dinner tables.
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It’s hard work to get to the point where you’re able and willing to see the Lord of love in the odorous street person next to you in the pew. It can be just as hard to find him in the unwelcoming host.
What makes us so afraid of the other?…
That woman who wanders into Simon’s house comes with her hair uncovered – “oh, scandal! She’s clearly a woman of the street!”
At evemsong the Dean of Southwark Cathedral preached. Some extracts from his sermon:
On evangelical and ecclesiastically conservative websites I have been denounced this week for being ‘provocative’ and ‘discourteous to the Archbishop of Canterbury’ for extending this invitation. Well, I haven’t been denounced on these various websites for many months and I was beginning to feel neglected and unwanted so I am glad of the reassurance and attention.
The facts are simple; we have had a steady stream of archbishops here to preach during the time I have been Dean, and I expect well before that. The archbishops of Brazil, South Africa, Canada, and of course York and Canterbury, come to mind. Bishops from Zimbabwe, Norway, a woman bishop from the USA, and many others have held this pulpit. The invitation to the Presiding Bishop is not at all a novelty for us, and the date was fixed in July 2008 after we had failed to find a suitable date around the Lambeth Conference when first I invited her in the spring of 2008. I happened to be at Lambeth Palace on Friday where I collected the Archbishop’s licence for the Presiding Bishop to officiate, I have kept him informed at all times, I would not act without courtesy, nor he towards us.
There are several reasons for the fury. The Presiding Bishop is a woman and some people hate the idea of women as bishops. The General Synod of the Church of England is about to debate the admission of women as bishops within the Church of England. …
The lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures is enormously topical. Disaffected Anglicans have been threatening to ‘walk separate ways’ for many months. Abram and Lot travel together and their herdsmen bicker and fight, in modern translation there is ‘strife’ between them. They reach agreement to take separate paths and settle down and so their mutual belonging as members of one family is secured.
For another take on strife and division you can listen to the 33 minute Sunday sermon of John Yates, rector The Falls Church CANA with this accompanying figure.
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