Simon Butler ViaMedia Why R & R is Good for the Health of the Church
Laurie Goodstein interviews Presiding Bishop Michael Curry for the New York Times: Episcopal Church’s First Black Leader, a Gay Marriage Backer, Focuses on Race.
Church Times Interview: Rowan Williams, theologian, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge
So what would be the alternative to Renewal and Reform? To do nothing is not an option and from what I have read about R and R it has more chance, being more focused, of success than the Decade of Evangelism ever had. The Dean of Christ Church makes some insightful and perceptive observations but is perhaps too critical. Maybe in the ivory academic towers of Oxford he is lacking in episcopal oversight and restraint? Didn’t the Oxford CNC meet as long ago as early January (for the second time of asking) to select a successor to Bishop John Pritchard?… Read more »
I listen to Rowan, and have been very much helped by some of his spiritual insights, notably on St Teresa de Avila. But I don’t ‘receive’ his views uncritically, or in subservient, infantile manner. Some of what he says in this interview raises awkward questions about unspoken gaps in the narrative. “The interdependent life of the Body of Christ… continues to be absorbing for me… the inseparable connection between what we say about Jesus Christ, and what we say about the community that lives in him.” But does that include or exclude gay couples? Does interdependence justify the marginalisation of… Read more »
“A bishop has to be a teacher of the faith.” – Rowan Williams
If only CofE bishops lived up to a fraction of this.
The choice of the new Bishop of Oxford was due to have been made on 8th March and (given Archbishop Justin didn’t write to the diocese straight away to say there was a problem, as he did last time) probably was. Announcements seem to follow between one and three months later at the moment, so Father David will have his customary opportunity to sneer at or praise the new Bishop in a few or a number of weeks time. The backlog on these appointments has now been caught up on so when the next vacancy occurs or is announced the… Read more »
The interview with Rowan Williams was illuminating. I was happy to discover where he is happiest and the most reassuring, loved sound to him.
The H of Bishops doesn’t have any academic theologians at the moment. But there is no point appointing an academic theologian to a diocese if s/he isn’t cut out for that role, which many academics aren’t. Surely the answer is for a diocesan bishop to have a theologian as an advisor…. And the H of Bishops to have a small team of periti they can call on..and who can usefully offer theological reflection and critique.