Baron Williams (R)
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has warned that his newly appointed successor faces a near impossible job and has questioned whether the Anglican Communion can survive.
In an interview with the Clerical Whispers blog site, Williams, who served as Archbishop from 2002 to 2012, said he would not be attending Dame Sarah Mullally’s upcoming installation as he did not wish to “be Marley’s ghost”.
He warned that Archbishop Mullally, like every new leader, would have a range of expectations heaped upon her: “Realising you’re not going to be able to meet them is part of the job. It is no walk in the park.”
Despite leaving office over a decade ago, the Church under Archbishop Mullally faces much of the same questions and problems that Williams had to deal with during his tenure. The ‘same-sex question’ and the unity of the global Anglican Communion remain key concerns.
Williams spoke of how he still loses sleep over the Jeffrey John controversy. John, a homosexual priest, was nominated for the post of Bishop of Reading in 2003, however pressure from the wider Communion led to his being withdrawn as a candidate.
Divisions within the Anglican Communion are stronger now than ever. When Mullally was announced as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON), said it would not recognise her spiritual authority due to “false teaching” on matters of sexuality.
Since then GAFCON has elected its own leadership council as it continues on the path of “principled disengagement”.
Speaking of the overall situation, Williams said, “I don’t know whether the Anglican Communion will survive.”
However, despite the decades long divisions and controversies, Williams said he still found comfort in his everyday faith.
“I keep going to mass in my parish church in Cardiff and making the most of that. What reassures me, what anchors me, is ultimately an act of faith, of theological conviction, that if God wants the Church to exist, the Church will exist,” he said.
Dame Sarah is to be formally installed as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury at Canterbury Cathedral on Wednesday.
