Our friends the Rev. Lesley Fellows of the No Anglican Covenant group and Adrian Worsfold, who blogs as The Pluralist are having a running, written debate about whether Rowan Williams should resign as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Lesley makes the case against resignation here, noting that while Williams has done various things that make her “ashamed and furious in equal measure,” she does not think it is fair to ask him to resign.
Why?
Well, because we should treat other people in the same way as we wish to be treated. I am tired of people telling me that I am not a Christian, that I am a heretic and not fit to be a priest, just because I hold a different view on homosexual equality to them. Rowan clearly felt he was acting in the best interests of the church, given that the church is so divided over homosexual clergy. I disagree. However, demands for his resignation do not help the discussion – they cause people to become entrenched.
Adrian counters:
How about the idea, instead, that Rowan Williams is relying on the liberal wing and the LGBT folks on continually turning the other cheek and ‘not excluding him’ so that he can actively build up his vision of a purple-led international Church with a more literalistic reading of the Bible than you would find in most seminaries never mind universities?
He is not just holding a Church together, he is actively building something inimical to Anglican reason and variety.
This is good sport, but there is very little likelihood that the archbishop is going anywhere any time soon. And I say very little only because in speaking of the future one should avoid absolutes.