Church of England's Archbishop of Canterbury to Step Down

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Church of England's Achbishop of Canterbury to step down

LONDON (Reuters) - The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, announced on Friday he will step down at the end of the year after a decade of struggling to prevent a schism over women and gay bishops and same-sex unions.

The 80-million strong worldwide Communion has been threatened with division for a number of years, with reformists and conservatives failing to bend to his authority or attempts at consensus.

He will step down at the end of December to take up an academic role at Magdalene College, Cambridge University, his office said in a statement.

(Reporting by Avril Ormsby)


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE82F0HX20120316?irpc=932Link to source

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Oh my. n/t

[Ken Burch]

2. It's Anglican tradition that the Archbishop of Canterbury retires after a certain period of time

He(or, as it eventually will be, she)does not tend to die in the job, like they do in Rome.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Just to note here

that most Archbishops retire after a similar length of service to Rowan Williams'. It's not a fixed-term appointment, but it's not expected to be a lifetime one either. Of Rowan William's last three predecessors, Robert Runcie and George Carey retired after 11 years, and Donald Coggan after 6. All survived for at least 10 years after leaving office, and Carey is still alive and active (and a nuisance, since, unlike Williams and most English Bishops, he is firmly allied with the Christian Right).

[geardaddy]

4. If I recall correctly, Williams is quite on the side of

woman priests and gay bishops. Is that right?

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. He was, before he became AB of C

but since he did, he has always done everything to cut down controversy - so he used pressure to stop the appointment of the first gay bishop. I think he is still officially in favour of women bishops, but has allowed the anti-woman faction to use delaying tactics, such as suggesting 'compromises' where parishes can demand they don't come under a female bishop if one is appointed to their diocese (ie geographical area), but instead get a special 'men-only' bishop who was not appointed by a woman bishop either ('apostolic succession' mattering to these people). This may get sorted this year, finally.

[FarCenter]

5. Schisms are good

If the church divides in two, more people will support the church of their choice than would they support the single conflicted church.

One of the reasons why there is more support of churches in the US is that we have literally hundreds of denominations to pick from.

Product line differentiation is good marketing.

[dembat]

7. Archbishop of Canterbury stepping down

I am glad he is stepping down, he is just too conservative, and he was not for women becoming bishops.

[reress]

8. Spam deleted by OKNancy (MIR Team)

[Turbineguy]

9. This is not the first Archbishop named Rowan....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/blackadder/episodes/one/one_archbishop.shtml

[Ken Burch]

10. Does anyone know if any of his possible successors

has the potential to be an "Anglican Ratzinger"?

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Favourite to succeed is Sentamu, currently Archbish of York

and thus 'number 2' in the C of E hierarchy. He's quite outspoken; left wing on economics, but socially right wing - he's firmly against gay bishops, or gay marriage. Born in Uganda, he would be the first black ABC. Worringly, he agreed to start writing a column for Murdoch's newly-launched 'Sun on Sunday' - the replacement for the News of the World that shut because of its phone hacking. I suppose he excuses it as "we must preach everywhere" or something, but it seems like giving Murdoch cover, to me.

2nd favourite is Chartres, the Bishop of London - who is against women bishops (and, as far as I know, gay bishops and gay marriage). He screwed things up a bit in the handling of the Occupy protest at St. Paul's Cathedral - he seemed to take the side of the Stock Exchange, and that wasn't popular.

Here's a Telegraph piece on it (they probably care about it more than any other paper) - I haven't heard of the other possibilities mentioned.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9150004/Archbishop-of-York-named-as-frontrunner-to-replace-Rowan-Williams.html

[DonCoquixote]

12. Sad thing is

He could have been a good bishop, but then he spoke for putting Sharia in England. Now, do not confuse the issue with the american sharia mess, he actually wanted England to recognize formally two types of law.

Why was that bad, because England's one genuine contribution was the idea that everyone,inbcluding the King, would submit to one greater law.