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This person is the leader of my church giving his annual address to the nation.
It is essentially a stagnant heap of Leftist, evasive, multi-culti, politically correct propaganda - but don't miss the Christian reference...
http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2312/archbishops-bbc-new-year-message
..it comes, briefly, about three and a half minutes into a four and a half minute video.
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Otherwise, what can one say about this?
What words describe it?
Banal, trite, obscure, wrong whenever it is not platitudinous, missing the point - but then what is the point supposed to be?
I can only guess he is setting up a straw man of Britain's supposed hostility to 'young people' and then proposing some vague and ineffectual secular ways this can be tackled.
But why? Why did he do this? What does he think he is doing? Has he any conception of how clownish and unprincipled he appears - how c & u he actually is?
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The Church of England evangelical protestant church I support has a tremendous range of exciting and amusing activities for children (including my kids); these activities also have an obvious and unashamed evangelical and Christian educational element to them. It 'works', and consequently this is one of the ten biggest Anglican Churches in England (measured by the size of the regular congregation). Yet of course, this church is at the opposite pole from the Archbish of C and seriously at loggerheads with the liberal Anglican hierarchy.
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11 comments:
I couldn't agree more. Rowan Williams is a Leftist dressed up as a priest - the type C.S. Lewis warned against in Screwtape.
His election was probably the result of the kind of process satirized on "Yes Minister", where Sir Humphrey worries about accidentally choosing someone who actually beliefs in Christianity.
I thought you were Eastern Orthodox, Dr. Charlton.
I thought so too.
@Brandon & Anymouse - The Church of England is the only Church of which I am a member, in the sense of being allowed to participate in the Mass/ Holy Communion.
I regard Eastern Orthodoxy as the highest form of Christianity, but there is no nearby Orthodox Church where I could attend frequently enough to become 'Chrismated' and able to take communion - so I am limited to irregular and not-fully-participatory visits; but of course I read a lot in this tradition, and regard Hieromonk Seraphim Rose as a Spiritual Father.
The fact seems to be that I seem to 'need' Mass at least twice a week, and suffer when I don't get this - which means that I have to worship in the Anglo or Roman Catholic tradition; I already an Anglican so that is what I do - also because I love the traditional liturgy.
(The above implies that I am not one of those who believes there is a single valid Christian denomination - I am, in other words, a CS Lewis type Mere Christian. I do believe in the real presence at Mass, and know from experience that the Anglican Mass - with certain minimal conditions - is fully valid. On the other hand I also believe that Protestants can achieve salvation without the 'real' sacraments - I just know that for me this is a dry and grim path.)
It is a matter of negotiating between what is the best and highest, and what is possible for me, here, now.
Does that clarify things?
I can understand Dr. Charelton's situation. I feel drawn toward Orthodoxy but there is a relative dearth of such churches in my area. One is headed by and mainly consists of converted Protestants. This would not be a problem in and of itself, but I get the impression that a certain streak of residual American fundamentalism persists in the beliefs of that congregation. They are suspicious, for instance, of Halloween even as a secular "celebration"; and I suspect that they look askance at horror and fantasy genres due to supposed occult or pagan connections.
I suspect that some others serve as ad hoc community organizations for the people of those ethnicities who constitute their respective congregations. E.g, the Greek Orthodox Church is, to a certain degree, a meeting place and forum for locals of Greek descent. This is not an essential problem, but outsiders might understandably feel awkward.
There is at least one which I have not yet thoroughly investigated and may well join.
I understand. I had always assumed you attended an Eastern Orthodox Church. C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity is something I can share a lot of agreement with. I myself am a Roman Catholic.
I have attended a Russian Orthodox Church (in English, mostly) a few times, and may well go again - but I was rather perplexed to discover that there is a schism in the church and some of the people I know (as penfriends) who are devotees of Fr Seraphim Rose no longer seem to be in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia but have stayed out of the recent (re)union with the Moscow based church to form a 'remnant'
http://remnantrocor.blogspot.com/
The reason is that the Russian 'State' Church has not repented for its (terrible) role in the Communist era.
At any rate, that makes a further complication since there seems to be only one remnant ROCOR institution in the UK:
www.saintedwardbrotherhood.org
What are your thoughts on Bishop Richard Williamson's take on what the Catholic Church should become? Would you join such a church?
S Brady - I didn't know what you meant - but I see that he is an SSPX Bishop; and I do support SSPX. Indeed the only Tridentine mass I went to was at an SSPX church.
But my preference would certainly be for the Anglican Ordinariate, with the traditional Anglican Liturgy (slightly modified only when absolutely necessary).
However, this is just day dreaming!
Dr. Charleton, I, too have an admiration for the Russian Orthodox Church, and have found the in-fighting disquieting and sometimes confusing. In addition to the ROC and ROCOR divide, there is also the issue of the Ukrainian Church. There are 3 divisions, but only one is generally acknowledged as legitimate; that is, the Ukrainina Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Thus, those churches are drawn into the broader arguments within the Russian Orthodox community.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, however, is under the see of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. I feel compelled toward that direction, in part, to avoid some of the conflicts mentioned in this thread.
I live near a "break away" traditionalist Anglican church and seminary. Their main current of thought seems to an adherence to the 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer combined with a dose of High Churchness. Some of what they stand for would be very appealing to Anglicans with a reactionary streak, but they have a host controversy and complications, too.
Haha :)
How amusing you should finally mention that dope of dopes, Mr. R. Williams.
There may be many reasons why Christianity is a vanishing species, but he is surely right up there at the top of the list.
You don't even have to hear him speak, or hear what he says, to be utterly nonplussed at his appointment to the highest post of - ah - his religion.
Monty Python couldn't have cast a better parody.
Dolt of Dolts.
God help us!
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