Ruth Gledhill blogs:
A fantastic story, possibly apocryphal but one that has a certain ring of truth about it, is doing the rounds among mums in London.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has a son who is of school age and who, like any schoolboy and certainly like my own young son, loves nothing more than a good play date.
This boy was apparently round at a friend's house the other day when his dad, Dr Rowan Williams, appeared on the television, as he does.
'Oh look,' piped up the boy's school friend. 'There's that man on the telly who does the hoovering at Pip's house.'
Mitres off to you Jane, you've got your priorities right. I think you might just be deserving of another bottle of Times champagne for this coup in domestic ecclesiastical politics.
But have things deteriorated this far, that the Church Commissioners can no longer fund a cleaner at Lambeth Palace?
There are times when I love our most humble of Archbishops, and this is one of them. Thank you Dr Williams for this Maundy Thursday moment, a reminder at the start of Advent of where all our priorities should be.
..and a reader comments
Oh Ruth you do like to peddle this myth that this man is humble - where is the evidence for this? His actions have shown him to be the classic biblical "wise man" who thinks himself clever but whose actions prove to be foolish and disastrous. This surely is a sign of arrogance and pride not humility.
More like the obsequious Uriah Heep than the authentic humility of Cardinal Hume. And just like the mock Eucharistic services of the COE used to be called (washing feet included)it is and he is a Blasphemous Sham!