wfn.org | New Archbishop of Canterbury expected to be inspiring but controversial

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Note #7355 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

25-July-2002
02268
 
New Archbishop of Canterbury expected to be inspiring but controversial  
  
by Cedric Pulford  
Ecumenical News International

LONDON - Rowan Williams, the next archbishop of Canterbury, will be an inspiring but controversial leader in the opinion of the British press, which gave wide coverage to his appointment.  

"Canterbury's turbulent priest," commented the Daily Telegraph, in a reference to Williams's 12th-century Canterbury predecessor, the martyred Thomas Becket, who was described this way by the English king.  

The newspaper said "some evangelicals foretell schism" in the Church of England over Williams' radical social views, which include acceptance of gay relationships and condemnation of a Western attack on Iraq.  

Williams is also sympathetic to the consecration of women bishops, which has not been approved in the Church of England, and the remarriage of divorcees in church, and against commercial targeting of children.  

Hugo Young in the Guardian suggested that Williams would provide the sort of spiritual leadership that had been widely admired in the late Cardinal Basil Hume, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Westminster.  

Young said of Williams's two most recent predecessors as Anglican leader, "their trumpet quavered from the margins rather than blazing from the mountaintop", and added: "It's obvious that Dr. Rowan Williams will be different."   

The Guardian commented editorially that Williams "comes with every intellectual and pastoral qualification one could wish for". His appointment was a challenge to modern Britain.  

Simon Jenkins in The Times said the public yearned for "new shafts of light" on current events, but the Church of England in recent years had shied away from controversy.  

"Quaking before the gods of democracy, it has dragged its moral concerns away to the hermitage of platitude," he wrote. Williams, however, "has shown no hesitation about a clergyman's duty to apply moral precepts to whatever crosses his line of vision."

In an editorial, The Times asked: "There remains one doubt about his appointment - will his taste for controversial public pronouncements and positions overshadow all his other work?"  

Damian Thompson in the Daily Mail was among several observers who stressed that Williams was socially liberal but theologically orthodox.  

"Over the next few years there will probably be many rows inspired by the archbishop's pungent opposition to American-style capitalism - but none, one suspects, about his doctrinal views," he wrote.  

Thompson said the Church of England was preparing to take "the biggest gamble in its history, after handing the chair of St. Augustine to a Welsh-speaking socialist who looks as if he has spent the last few years in the wilderness living on locusts and honey."  

Several commentators praised British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who appointed Williams in the name of Queen Elizabeth II on the recommendation of the church authorities.  

The Independent remarked editorially: "The temptation would have been to appoint a careful manager or a church politician, whose primary concern would have been to smooth over potential splits."

The newspaper added that Williams would not be "cavalier" in his approach, but "will not trim principles for pragmatic reasons, and will not allow the nation's leaders to do so either."

Paul Handley, in Church Times Online, reported that at a press conference on July 23 Williams fielded questions on Iraq, homophobia, threats of schism from parts of the Church of England's evangelical wing, his concern for children, separation of the church from the state (disestablishment), and the Anglican Communion world-wide.  

Handley commented: "Dr Williams spoke openly, but somehow managed not to give any hostages to fortune."  

Williams, 52, who is currently archbishop of Wales, will be the first archbishop of Canterbury since the 16th century to have been appointed from outside the bench of bishops of the Church of England, the Guardian reported.  

He will take over from Dr. George Carey, who retires on October 31 after having held office since 1991. 
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