His comments come in a new television programme, to be broadcast on Channel 4 this weekend, in which five leading religious figures in Britain explain the basic tenets of their faith and how they know that God exists.
Perhaps because TEC is a small church compared with some others, and perhaps because it’s had to forge its identity in a much more competitive arena than the C of E with its historic privileges and relationship with the State, TEC appears to me to have imbibed the breadth, the diversity and the challenge of Jesus Christ to bring the Gospel to ALL people.
The proposed Anglican Covenant would be an out of the ordinary device that would completely alienate the Church of England from the culture it serves. Justice for gay people would continue to be won, step by step, in English society, but the churches would become an anachronism living in their own ghetto of bigotry.
The Rev. Phil Ashey, chief operating officer of the American Anglican Council, said the sentiment on the ground is: “Rowan has spoken. So what? … He has abdicated his leadership in surrendering to the two-tier, two-track model of Anglicanism. … In typically Rowanesque fashion, he has left an open door for the Episcopal Church to dominate.”
It is the way that Archbishop Rowan uses “choice” which is bothersome, as if it would be as easy for someone to choose a homosexual lifestyle as it would be them to choose a certain way of being Anglican. At their deepest levels of identity, neither homosexuality nor Anglicanism is a choice. In particular, Anglicans have claimed that Anglican Christianity is a gift. – The Very Rev. Sam Candler
The statement is thoroughly considered, carefully crafted, finely nuanced–and, in the end, says very little and accomplishes even less. ~Robert Munday, Nashotah House
The Archbishop of Canterbury has posted his thoughts on the actions of the most recent General Convention. His paper opens:
Archbishop of Canterbury’s Meditation
Perhaps the most striking thing about the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Jamaica is the deliberate fear mongering engaged in by men like Rowan Williams,
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, reflects on the meaning of Easter for our lives.