Updated Saturday night
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has “begun a campaign to persuade General Synod members to back the new women bishops legislation when it returns to debate it next month” with this article in today’s Church Times
that is also available on his website: Women Bishops: Enough Waiting. He concludes:
My hope for next month’s debate is that it will tackle what is really before us, not what it is assumed or even suspected to mean; that it will give us grounds for trusting one another more rather than less; that it will be rooted in a serious theological engagement with what makes for the good of the Church and its mission, a serious attempt to be obedient to God’s leading – and, perhaps most soberingly, that it will not ignore the sense of urgency about resolving this that is felt inside and outside the Church, often with real pain and bewilderment. As a Synod, we are asked to act not only as a legislature but as a body that serves the Kingdom of God and takes a spiritual and pastoral responsibility for its actions. And I know that Synod members, myself among them, will be praying hard about what this entails.
The Church Times also reports on the contents of the article: Williams urges waverers to back women-bishops Measure.
Update
Lizzy Davies in The Guardian Rowan Williams issues warning over women bishops vote
Jerome Taylor in The Independent Vote for women bishops or face further turmoil within the Church, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams warns
“My hope for next month’s debate is that it will tackle what is really before us, not what it is assumed or even suspected to mean” Isn’t that the problem, that the wording is such that people can read a number of meanings into it? It probably must be so, otherwise you’d never get agreement. But it would help if a. the legal meaning of “Respect” was spelled out clearly and b. someone explained what the HoB “meant” so that the rest of us can stop speculating. c. someone legally trained explained the scope of the wording regardless of what… Read more »
Wonderful!
Could it be that, after his recent exposure to the Roman Catholic Synod of Bishops, ++Rowan has come to realise the infinite gulf there is between our two Churches on the Faith and Order consequences of Women’s Ordination? Despite the good relationship that exists between the Pope and this Archbishop of Canterbury, it must now be recognised that the prospect of any immediate convergence on the ministry of women in our respective Churches must seem as far away as ever. Whatever the reason for ++Rowan’s turnaround on the urgency of the need For General Synod’s vote, that would enable the… Read more »
Fr Ron Smith, You’re right, this is more like the Rowan we once knew and loved. But why the shift to speaking his mind at last? Perhaps he’s demob happy, after all he has little to lose now and everything to gain from snatching one major achievement at the very end of his archiepiscopate. It’ll be interesting to read what he writes once he’s safely back in academia in Cambridge next year and free from the burdens of trying (fruitlessly) to appease conservative factions in the Anglican Communion. Will he then revert for example to his original views on the… Read more »
Even if the current Measure is passed. there will still be years of internal wrangling and dissension. Traditionalists who remain in the Church of england, I imagine, will simply not comply. Conscience will not be overriden.
The stuff about “the Rowan we once knew” is nonsense. He has always been utterly committed to women bishops and utterly committed to provision for those opposed. We really don’t do this stuff the way other Provinces do. Rowan has been consistent on trying to keep the opponents in and trying to get the legislation through. People on TA may not get the nuances of the debate (hence we get people on threads like these deploring the “fact” that we’ve sold opponents down the river and others deploring the “fact” that we’ve made provision for people whose views shouldn’t be… Read more »
Peter Broadbent said, “We really don’t do this stuff the way other Provinces do.” And you think that’s a virtue? The current tendency to try to have it both ways may prove counterproductive and self-defeating. Mark my words. The C of E will eventually need to resort to a strong doctrinal line in favor of women’s ordination. And when it happens, the rest of the country will applaud. Most of modern society, after all, is wondering what is taking the C of E so long, and why the Church of England is bending over backwards to accommodate troglodytes. Meanwhile the… Read more »
“Conscience will not be overriden.” – Benedict –
Which meme applies to both parties – whether for or against the Ordination of women Bishops. Justice cries out to be heard.