Anglican primate visits Canadian church on brink of schism
Archbishop Williams's leadership called 'disappointing'

Richard Foot
CanWest News Service
Saturday, April 14, 2007

"One of the most difficult jobs in Christendom."

That's how Ruth Gledhill, religion correspondent for the Times of London, describes the work of the Archbishop of Canterbury, a position of high expectations and heavy responsibility, but little or no power.

Archbishop Dr. Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's 70 million Anglicans, comes to Canada Sunday for a three-day visit, his first since assuming the Chair of St. Augustine, as the office is more loftily known, in 2002.

Williams's visit and any pronouncements he makes will be watched carefully by Anglicans around the globe, for never in history has any Archbishop of Canterbury been so besieged by crisis as Williams is today. The church he leads -- the world's third-largest Christian denomination after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches -- is on the brink of schism, its conservative branches in Africa, Asia and Latin America vowing to disown their liberal cousins in Canada and the United States.

Although sexual ethics have fuelled the dispute -- with Anglican dioceses in North America installing gay priests and bishops, and "blessing" same-sex unions, contrary to Anglican orthodoxy -- the larger tension revolves around the liberalizing efforts of some bishops on a full range of theology. The result has been an unseemly and escalating war of words and threats between bishops and archbishops from Toronto to Tanzania and beyond.

Williams waded into this simmering mess five years ago when he was plucked from relative obscurity as Archbishop of Wales and appointed by the Queen to Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

His reputation, says Paul Handley, editor of the independent British newspaper the Church Times, was that of an "intelligent and radical thinker" and a brilliant theologian, equipped with the kind of warm and endearing personality that might be just the thing to heal the hard feelings in the Anglican family.

Earlier in his career, Williams had been an outspoken liberal. He was once arrested for demonstrating against the stationing of U.S. cruise missiles in Britain. He supported the remarrying of divorced people in church. And he said gay and lesbian Christians should be accepted as members of the clergy.

When he replaced the conservative George Carey, many liberals -- including Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, who heads the Canadian church -- believed they finally had an "enlightened" leader who would promote and articulate their views. Instead, Williams has puzzled and frustrated the liberals who once considered him the answer to their prayers. Rather than move their pro-gay agenda forward, he chose the role of broker between the opposing wings of the church, only to become mired in the dispute.

Some critics accuse him of siding with the conservative bishops of the developing world -- whose views on homosexuality he almost certainly doesn't share -- but whose countries are among the only sources of Anglican growth.

Williams's overriding concern, says Handley, is the unity of the communion, the fear that the church might fall apart on his watch. If that means putting aside his personal views to appease the conservative wing, then so be it.

Unlike the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury cannot ensure unity by dictating orders to Anglican "provinces," or regions, all of which are independent, self-governing arms of the communion.

So exasperated are many Anglicans by Williams's handling of the crisis that Hutchison, who will host Williams in Canada, criticized him publicly this week, calling his leadership "disappointing and lacking."

The Anglican Communion has reached a breaking point. In June, the Canadian church will hold a historic vote on whether to allow their priests to formally bless same-sex unions.

That may seem like a silly debate in a country where civil gay marriage is already legal. However, a formal endorsement of same-sex relationships by Canadian Anglicans may provoke not only a schism within the church at home, but also a breakup of the global communion.

This article comes from the Edmonton Journal
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/index.html

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