Articles in "obiter"

An appraisal of the archepiscopate of Dr. Rowan Williams by Tom Sutcliffe, a lay member of the Church of England's General Synod from the Diocese of Southwark for the past 22 years.  Written from an "Affirming Catholicism" perspective, a shorter version of this article appeared in the Spectator.

It is essential to underscore a governing statement about everything that we have just said: Nothing that distinguishes PEARUSA’s voice is in conflict with the overriding convictions and commitments of ACNA. We do not bring a discordant voice but a complementary, strengthening voice. In fact, everything we believe and practice echoes what many in ACNA already believe and practice. If this were not so, there would not be such enthusiasm from both ACNA and PEARUSA for the development of the protocols to govern PEARUSA as a subjurisdiction of ACNA.

The political obituaries of the Archbishop of Canterbury have portrayed Dr. Rowan Williams as a brilliant, decent, spiritual man who was let down by the Church of England, or who was tasked with an impossible job, or who was a unfairly savaged by a rapacious media culture.

The less than glowing statements from overseas church leaders, with a few exceptions such as that of the Archbishop of Cape Town, are treated as outliers, or dismissed with the sentiment that “well, they would say that wouldn’t they.”

There is thus an attitude in the U.K. that there must be something wrong, or at least odd, about those who were not enamored by Dr. Williams. 

That much having been said, I think it is fair to say that all Christians, everywhere, can uniformly deplore the manner in which this scenario has played out, given the Internet and its ability to spread news at the speed of light, as well as the reactions to that news. The Internet, because of its very immediacy, tends to magnify the significance of individual personalities, and at the same time, to make it thus more difficult to view the entire forest instead of the individual trees (or should I call them "personali-trees"?).

The AMiA press office appears to have shot itself in the foot once more.  On Dec 9, 2011 – some eleven months after Bishop Alexis Bilindibagabo requested Bishop Chuck Murphy provide an explanation for the discrepancy between the amount of money the AMiA reported as sending to Rwanda as a tithe, and the amount of money received by Rwanda (approximately $1.2 million) – the AMiA released data on the tithe to Rwanda for the years 2004 to 2010.

Confusion over the consequences of the AMiA Bishops walkout has spawned a host of contrary opinions as to what the schism means for the organizations' clergy and congregations.  While the AMiA leadership insists that congregations and clergy are tied to the person of Chuck Murphy, other AMiA leaders have argued the link is with the Province of Rwanda.