A House Divided (London Times)
June 21st, 2006 by Peter Frank
Rowan Williams might be forgiven if he agreed with George Orwell’s observation that the worst advertisements for both Christianity and socialism are their adherents. The election of the Right Rev Katharine Schori to be Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States may be as much a reflection of the rivalries within that body as a calculated challenge to the wider Anglican community. Yet it will still have the effect of pouring more petrol on a raging fire. Her elevation may well entrench attitudes within the Church of England over the appointment of women bishops, deepen the Anglican divide on homosexuality and render a formal schism more probable.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is all too aware that the Lambeth Conference over which he must preside in two years’ time may be the moment of final conflict, not of compromise or consensus. It has been his misfortune to personify the trauma of the Anglican faith more broadly. Dr Williams is by instinct a liberal, as his initial decision to back the celibate homosexual Jeffrey John to be Bishop of Reading three years ago indicated, but has discovered that his post obliges him to act as an institutional conservative (as his subsequent move to persuade Dr John to stand down illustrated). Ever since, his tenure has been framed by the fear of his flock fragmenting.