RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: Good riddance: Archbishop of Canterbury calls it a day Mon Mar 26, 2012 3:23 am | |
| After nine years, Dr Rowan Williams will flee from the lofty heights as Archbishop of Canterbury to the refuge of academia. The Archbishop is head of the Anglican Communion, the third biggest Christian Communion after Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Anglicanism, with more than 85 million adherents really matters.
The travails of Dr Williams are a case study of the stresses that occur when change and modernity assail a venerable faith. It has been an impossible time to be the leader. The blustery winds of conflict and incompatibility are blowing through the naves and transepts.
Unbeknown to Rowan, our paths have crossed. We have both studied at the Divinity School in Cambridge (I bludged free lectures for 18 months). In the months before his enthronement in 2003, I went to a poetry reading and chamber music afternoon at my local church where he was the star performer. There I observed a deeply cerebral, very holy man with a lovely disposition and a negligent barber. Imagine the profundity of my shock when I realised that this long-haired, bearded poetry buff was a contender for Archbishop, a position that requires the holder to balance the warring factions in the Communion. The words "water", "fish" and "out of" all sprang to mind.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/blogs/godless-gross/archbishop-of-canterbury-calls-it-a-day-20120322-1vlqa.html#ixzz1qCnGwmvY
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