Movement 113
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headless chicken?<br />
Where now for the Ghurch of England?<br />
the church<br />
As I write this, the Ghurch of England is<br />
officially headless. Archbishop George<br />
Carey, who has headed the church<br />
through the ordination of women and<br />
the decade of evangelism, retired at the<br />
end of October, and Archbishop Rowan<br />
Williams starts in January. Meanwhile,<br />
the Church of England is wandering<br />
around twitching like the proverbial<br />
headless chicken (Proverbs 26:6).<br />
Reform and the Church Society, along with<br />
Forward in Faith, the right and left wings of<br />
the church, are in a flap about Rowan's views<br />
on homosexuality, among other issues.<br />
lrrespective of his reassurances to them, they<br />
are determined to find a liberal plot and are<br />
in the of excludi themselves from<br />
the church. A split of some sort seems<br />
inevitable, then we can just remove the<br />
entrails and roast the chicken.<br />
I suspect there are two prime causes of the<br />
problem - disappointment and (ssshh - are<br />
the children in bed?) postmodernity. George<br />
Carey was a big disappointment to the<br />
evangelicals in the Church of England. They<br />
hoped that now 'one of them' was in control,<br />
everything would be OK. The NIV would be on<br />
every lectern, the ASB would be binned, and<br />
a revised BCP would bring us back to the<br />
glories of our reformed foundation. But it all<br />
went wrong. The decade of evangelism<br />
promised much and delivered nothing.<br />
Women got ordained (shock horror). Carey<br />
disappeared from our TVs, and the future king<br />
got divorced and wanted to be the Defender<br />
of Faiths. Society kept turning away from the<br />
church.<br />
ln many ways George Carey was the last<br />
modern arChbishop, and in that he 'fails'<br />
because society has become a postmodern<br />
one. The conseruatives in both wings of the<br />
church see a liberal in Williams, maybe<br />
because he is a theologian. They are wrong.<br />
Rowan Williams is the first postmodern<br />
archbishop of the Church of England. He is a<br />
poet (even his name is poetic) and a prophet.<br />
He accepts difference, but stands clearly for<br />
his own deep understanding of faith. I believe<br />
he understands the fundamental change that<br />
has happened to our society. The issues that<br />
the conservatives have are the issues of the<br />
modernist with a postmodernist. (See the<br />
critique of Rowan Williams'theology by Garry<br />
Williams, tutor at Oak Hill College, London, at<br />
www. lati mertrust.or9theology:of . htm.)All th is<br />
makes me sure that Rowan Williams is exactly<br />
the right person to help the Church of England<br />
at this time of change. The next few years will<br />
be very painful in the Church of England. We<br />
will continue to shrink and lose both prestige<br />
and finance. Failure will be an increasing part<br />
of our experience. Major splits will occur. We<br />
will not just feel like headless chickens but<br />
trussed and roasted chickens. But out of the<br />
fire and suffering, we may discover that we<br />
are not a chicken but a phoenix. I<br />
Nell Elliott<br />
society kept<br />
turning<br />
away from<br />
the church<br />
Rowan Williams,<br />
fully kifted out<br />
to lead a beheaded<br />
chicken into the future<br />
. Noil Elllott is AnElllcan<br />
chaplain at the Unlvelalty<br />
of Gentral England<br />
movement | 9
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