The Times of London in a report by Ruth Gledhill:
The body responsible for choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury has failed to agree who should be the successor to Dr Rowan Williams.
Despite a three day session, aided by prayers invoked on Twitter with the hashtage #prayforthecnc, the 16-member committee has been unable to decide on who should take on the job that the present incumbent today implied was “impossible”.A source told The Times that a decision on who should succeed Dr Rowan Williams was not expected soon. “A decision is not imminent.”
The story was run under the headline “Church of England fails to agree successor for Archbishop of Canterbury.” No word on whether Gledhill wrote the headline.
The story is pay-walled and we only have access to the opening paragraphs.
Anglican Communion News Service has issued this statement:
Update on the Crown Nominations Commission of the Church of England
Posted On : September 28, 2012 5:18 PM |
This week’s meeting of the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) has been accompanied by much speculation about possible candidates and the likely timing of an announcement of the name of who will succeed Dr Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury when he steps down to become Master of Magdalene College.
The CNC is an elected, prayerful body. Its meetings are necessarily confidential to enable members to fulfil their important responsibilities for discerning who should undertake this major national and international role. Previous official briefings have indicated that an announcement is expected during the autumn and that remains the case; the work of the Commission continues. There will be no comment on any speculation about candidates or about the CNC’s deliberations. Dr Williams remains in office until the end of December.
Despite the statement’s to “autumn” it had been expected the choice would be announced by next Wednesday.
There are reports the communications officer has told reporters asking about the update that the CNC meeting of three days has ended, but the task before it is not finished.
Added: Under the headline “Secretive committee still ‘discerning’ next Archbishop of Canterbury” The Telegraph reports,
A Church source added: “This is saying ‘back off, we’ve got our own timetable’ … you can probaby take from that that the decision isn’t imminent.”
Check the betting odds here. Welby remains favored, by a wide margin at the time of this writing.