Rowan Williams was brilliant, but failed to bridge chasm of divided church

Despite its charm, the Archbishop of Canterbury will always remember the way he handled the gay issue

"The problem with Rowan Williams, is that Christian is too bloody." Maybe this is not the kind of thing one expects from a bishop companion. But almost summarize the problem. Williams was too good for his enemies and the enemies. is not too strong a word.

archbishops some recently chaired a worldwide church disagreements so angry and bitter. Few people have faced such a sustained invective and vitriol. I have no idea how their faith has survived the experience. From time to time he dropped this look of paternal solicitude and a scholar could glimpse something heavy inside. No wonder he felt such an affinity with Dostoevsky. Despite his intellectual brilliance and charm - qualities that have attracted great loyalty to his family - the tragedy of his leadership, and for what will be remembered is how he tackled the gay issue

Maybe I would not have raised the challenge impossible to maintain the global church together. When the Archbishop of Nigeria, the head of one of the churches the fastest growth in the world's Anglicans, compared to fellows, the idea that Anglicans lived in the same moral universe, let alone the same church, was dead in the water. No amount of building bridges could bridge the gap between this perspective and the consecration of openly gay bishop in the United States.

The fact that Williams attempted mediation was impossible, for some, the very essence of Christianity sacrificial. But most of it seemed ridiculous. And the kind of madness that has been very cooperative with obvious damage - like when intimidated to ask Jeffrey John to withdraw his name as a candidate for Bishop of Reading after a storm in the world erupted in the appointment of a man gay as Bishop was announced. The Anglican Communion would never be the same. I remember terrible food at Lambeth Palace a few weeks later. Vine and moral support to see Jeffrey Rowan. We have questioned him about his policy towards homosexual Christians in the way he did to George Carey in a similar delegation a few years earlier. But it was useless. Nothing was ever going to do it right.

When Williams arrived in Canterbury most people thought he was a liberal theologian - gay friendly in favor of the ordination of women, something like a lefty. After all, he had been arrested during an anti-nuclear. But most people read it wrong - so radical, not liberal. It was the spiritual equivalent, perhaps even the inspiration behind Felipe Rubio what became popular as the Red conservatism. Wary of unfettered market forces, but also, and against the spirit of the time, the emphasis on individual freedom that went with it. It was a nostalgia of an old ideal of community - perhaps even the type of village community South Wales -. Where collective solidarity is always more important than individual choice and social diversity

• When editing the guest program today was asked to pick his favorite sound. It was the talk of the village post office. It was the kind of place where it is most at home - the world where people keep their back doors open and spend time together in the pub and the church. His theology is poetry community. But it only works when people share a lot in common. This is why Williams never really felt comfortable in the exciting and diverse place like London.

communitarianism

This crucially shape his understanding of the church. He cared little flummery Church. Once, I was teasing me that I had gone to the indigenous culture of San Pablo dressing. "Red Buttons, Giles. Always starts with red spots." In fact, there was a point in a black shirt and a purple office of a bishop. For him, the church is much more serious. This is where individual moral decisions of its members should be subject to the will of the whole.

You do not choose cornflakes as a moral choice. Thus, despite his instincts may be gay friendly, the growing recognition that the African church was totally against any accommodation with homosexuality is side with the Conservatives. England wanted a global community built around core values. And yes, indeed, became a split personality - with Williams man in conflict with Archbishop Williams. After the bitter Lambeth Conference of 1998, Williams and several other bishops, gay Christians made a promise. "We promise that we will continue to reflect, pray and work for their full integration into the life of the Church" Unfortunately, it was a promise he would not respond.

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