Archbishop's Sermon2

The Archbishop of Canterbury has admitted that the future of Anglicanism is “chaotic and uncertain”. One can’t help asking: And whose fault would that be, Your Grace?

Of course, many of the problems of the Anglican Communion are insoluble, by Dr Rowan Williams or anyone else. But his attempts to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds – firmly backing women bishops while pleading with opponents to stay; privately expressing support for gay unions while disciplining churches that bless them – don’t help at all.

Dr Williams was preaching at All Saints, Margaret Street; the sermon,which you can find here, is gentle and reflective. It was also intended, I think, as an appeal to members of an Anglo-Catholic parish to stay in the Church of England. Hence the following:

We need to tell the stories of the Saints to remind ourselves what is possible and within any Christian family. We need to tell the stories of those who have made God credible to us. And within our Anglican family we need to go on telling a few stories about those who have shown us that it is possible to lead lives of Catholic holiness even in the Communion of the See of Canterbury!

“Even” in communion with Canterbury, eh? That’s presumably a deliberately wry aside, but it won’t do much to quell the nagging doubt in the C of E that the Archbishop himself has quietly given up on Anglicanism, to the extent that he has more faith in Roman Catholicism as a historic institution, even if he can’t sign up to some of its conservative tenets.

And then this:

God knows what the future holds for any of us for any of our ecclesiastical institutions, but we can at least begin with what we can be sure of; that God has graced us with the lives of Saints; that God has been credible in this fellowship with these people. This church with its very particular place in the history of the Church of England is one small but significant facet of that great mystery and that great gift. And at times when the future seems more than usually chaotic and uncertain, it doesn’t hurt simply to give thanks.

There’s no doubt that Dr Williams is referring to the chaotic and uncertain future of the Anglican Communion. But it doesn’t hurt to give thanks, he adds. Is that supposed to be reassuring? As it happens, I don’t think St Margaret’s is the sort of Anglo-Catholic parish where many worshippers will leave, but there are other churches where the decision is on a knife-edge. This talk of a “chaotic and uncertain future” will act as a further incentive to convert to a Church whose leader would never, under any circumstances, send out such a hesitant and downbeat message.

By the way, you should also read this sermon that +Rowan delivered at St Mary’s, Bourne Street, a ritualist Anglo-Catholic parish where many worshippers will be tempted by the Pope’s offer. It contains this passage:

I dare say that there have been moments in the history of St Mary’s Bourne Street when people have remarked on the individuality of the people who worship here, and that’s a wonderful thing. If people in this congregation have been allowed to become more richly and quirkily themselves by experiencing the extraordinary, ordinariness of grace then that is something to be glad of.

To my mind, describing people as “richly and quirkily themselves” is pretty close to calling them loveable nutters. You could blame +Rowan’s tin ear, or his never-to-be-underestimated gift for patronising the faithful. Either way, if I was a regular at St Mary’s I’d be checking the fine print in the Apostolic Constitution.

(Damian Thompson reporting for the Telegraph)