Most Anglicans don't expect much in the way of sense from their spiritual leaders. Consequently, they don't get much. Mostly they have a typically English reaction such as 'Tut tut, he said what? Oh dear!
In some older suburbs of Australia, it it still not uncommon to see street signs saying 'Church of England', illustrating that the Anglican Church in Australia is the direct descendant of the Church of England. The Church in England dates back to Roman times, but the Church of England dates back to its establishment by Henry VIII, though Anglo Catholics would dispute this. The Lambeth Conference, which brings together the Anglican Communion every decade, is now the only link between the two Churches. The English Church is the Established Church, its formal head is the Sovereign. Its spiritual head is the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is selected by the Sovereign. Rowan Williams, the prolific Welshman, has resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury and will soon be replaced. The betting is that the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, will succeed him.
Sentamu is a fierce defender of the right to believe. The threat to the Anglican Church is not poverty or wealth, it is secularism. Sentamu is African, he was born in a village near Kampala, Uganda. Christianity is not a religion among others, it is a weltanschauung that defines his being.
What do we have in Australia? During the Christmas season, Bishop Philip Huggins, whose diocese is in Melbourne's West, bemoaned the fact that Australians were referring to the Christian season as 'the holidays' then referred to the Magi as the 'Wise Ones'. I always thought they were the Three Kings or Three Wise Men. Perhaps some of them were Queens? Perhaps we were misled about something for two millennia that Bishop Huggins has just found out about.
Then there's Archbishop of Melbourne Philip Freier. 'Australia could do better' the Archbishop told his flock, citing the usual suspects like the miners and the banks. It didn't stop the Archbishop pocketing $2 million from the Commonwealth Treasuer Peter Costello (an Anglican) to save the steeples of St Paul's Cathedral, then promptly hanging a banner reading 'Free David Hicks' between them.
The Catholics understand their flock. Celibate though the Catholic leadership may be, they always seem to find a manly type, an ex-footballer like Karol Wojtyla or George Pell, when support is wavering and a firm hand is needed. As GK Chesterton said, 'When people stop believing in God, they don't beleive in nothing -- they believe in anything.'
The enemy is not sexism, racism, the miners or the banks -- the enemy is secularism. .
Certainly the Anglican Church is facing dire times, but it's hard to pin-point why. Perhaps when the caprine Rowwan Williams is gone it will recover some backbone. One of the worst factors is a resurgence of anti-Semitism, but Anglicans are not alone in this. I get the impression most religious papers in Australia - Anglican, Catholic or Uniting, are run by third-rate journalists who cannot get a job even, yes EVEN in the mainstream media! and are unable to tell informed writing from trash
ReplyDeleteAt lest wih Murdoch one has a chance of reading some good journalists. This is less snd less true every day with Fairfax.
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