Terry Mattingly of GetReligion reviews a profile of Archbishop Welby in the Guardian
Let me begin with a note to digital obsessives who care about this kind of thing, since I hear from readers of this kind every now and then.
In the software categories and tags for this weekend’s “think piece,” I have included the word “demographics,” even though this feature from The Guardian about Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the Church of England does not include a direct reference to statistics about marriage, divorce, gay marriage, birthrates or other topics of that kind.
No, the goal of this opinion piece by Andrew Brown – no friend of traditional forms of Christianity – is to praise Welby for steering Anglicanism in the direction of compromise with the modern world. The headline: “With piety and steel, Justin Welby has the church in his firmest grip.” Anyone looking for praise or even constructive criticism of low-church evangelicals or Global South Anglicans can look elsewhere.
However, this piece has its moments of brutal candor about the state of Anglican life, does of acidic reality mixed in with the praise. The information contained in these passages is especially interesting, since it it comes from a voice on the left. If conservative Anglicans made the same comments, they would be easier for many readers to dismiss.
As an introduction, here is a lengthy summary passage that follows a discussion of Welby’s actions in one controversial case linked to alleged sexual abuse of a minor by a famous clergyman.
The whole show was typical of Welby’s style as Archbishop of Canterbury: he combines energy, ruthlessness and a determination to get the church moving, through a mixture of public theatricality and arm-twisting behind the scenes. He has been archbishop for five years and next month will publish a fat state-of-the-nation book that covers almost all the current areas of political and cultural dispute in the church. …
(H)e loves the work of nudging and manipulation. When he was trying to get the bishops of the worldwide Anglican communion to agree to meet again after decades of wrangling over gay sex and female bishops, he spent much of his annual holiday ringing the heads of the member churches for 20 minutes each – not how most people would choose to spend their holidays. And though he disclaims the ability to select bishops, ever since he drove through the legislation to make women bishops in 2013, the holy spirit has somehow ensured that half of the bishops appointed have been women, among them Sarah Mullally to the prominent see of London, and Jo Bailey Wells, his former chaplain, to be bishop of Dorking.
His manner is austere, somewhere between oil industry executive and crisp infantry officer. His temper is widely feared … , but at the same time it’s difficult to talk to him seriously without glimpsing beneath the armour of success, self-discipline and charming self-deprecation, the clever and miserable boy he must once have been. His critics say he is trying to turn the church towards soulless managerialism, devoid of mystery or imagination – and this stings him deeply.
Like I said, that’s praise with an edge.
Read it all in GetReligion
