The Archbishop of Canterbury and his Leaning to Rome
When the erudite Dr Rowan Williams was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of the Church of England in 2002, the Church Society stated, “On some important issues facing the Church, Dr Williams holds views which are unscriptural and divisive”. There was further foreboding when it emerged that, shortly before his appointment, he had been inducted as an honorary white Druid. True Protestants were also dismayed by his decided Anglo-Catholic sympathies – as shown by, for example, his pilgrimages to the shrine of Our Lady in Walsingham, Norfolk.
Now that he has announced his retirement from the Primacy, many remember his liberal pronouncements on homosexuals in the Church, women priests, creationism, and Sharia law in Britain. They also recall his weak leadership on the issues of homosexual bishops and women bishops, which paved the way for the Pope’s overtures to disaffected traditionalists in his Church to join the Church of Rome.
But Dr Williams himself has been leading the way to Rome. He attended the funeral of the last Pope – the first Archbishop of Canterbury to attend a papal funeral since the Reformation. He also attended the inauguration of the present Pope. In 2010, when the Pope visited this country, the Archbishop warmly welcomed him and even had him take part in a service in Westminster Abbey – the first pope to enter the Abbey.
Recently, Dr Williams took part with the Pope at a service in Rome and spoke of his “vision of the restoration of full sacramental communion” between his Church and the Roman Catholic Church. No Archbishop of Canterbury has visited the Pope as often as he has. It is ominous that a spokesman for the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe says, “These meetings keep showing that things are different now and we will not go back to the bad old days”.”
The past days of the Reformation and a prospering Protestantism are indeed “the bad old days” to Roman Catholics and their sympathisers, but it will be a good day when the national Churches in Britain will again embrace the Reformed faith. To that end may God return to us in the power of His Spirit to revive His cause in our nation. “Arise, O God, plead Thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth Thee daily” (Ps 74:22). NMR