Time magazine’s David Van Biema and Catharine Mayer have written a cover story on the Archbishop of Canterbury. It appears in this week’s European and South Pacific editions. The article will likely become the one piece that readers new to the turmoil in the Angican Communion will want to read for a quick, but fairly comprehensive grasp on the situation.
Archbishop of Canterbury reflects, “I don’t think schism is inevitable. The task I’ve got is to try and maintain as long as possible the space in which people can have constructive disagreements, learn from each other, and try and hold that within an agreed framework of discipline and practice.”
The invitation list for the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops is not complete, according to Canon James Rosenthal, communications director for the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), who said it is possible more invitations will be extended in the coming months.
Scott Gunn at Inclusive Church blog has done his history homework on former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey. Comparing “then” with “now” he finds “there
Carey: The circumstances facing each Archbishop of Canterbury will vary according to the needs
of the hour. For these reasons, I believe, that Dr Rowan Williams should not regard
the advice he has evidently received that this matter [inviting AMiA and CANA bishops] is ‘fixed’ as necessarily binding
on him in the very different circumstances of 2007.
It is a “sad day for the Anglican Communion and a new low for the beleaguered Archbishop of Canterbury. The once proud-of-its-diversity Anglican Communion has
Rowan Williams said on his recent visit to Canada that his job as Archbishop of Canterbury—the spiritual leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans—is to get people around the table and keep them there as long as possible.
Some time ago, I was conversing online with a friend and made the comment, “A weak leader is much more dangerous than no leader.” The focus of the discussion was on the current resident of Lambeth Palace. Responding to her questioning, I said that with no leadership we have at least the possibility that an effective leader may emerge; with a weak leader, we have an even stronger possibility that the Communion will be led into chaos and destruction.
During his summer sabbatical at Georgetown the Archbishop of Canterbury will be studying Dostoevsky.
The sabbatical topic was revealed in the Spy column of today’s Telegraph under the heading “Glutton for Punishment.”
Williams says, “Dostoevsky would say ethics is not about good and evil, it’s about truth and falsehood, reality and illusion. The right way to live doesn’t amount to a series of approved actions.”
In its April 17 issue, The Globe and Mail incorrectly quoted the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, as saying a draft covenant presented to