[Episcopal News Service]
During an interview on the British Broadcasting Corporation, the new archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams of Wales, took a swipe at the church's 'anti-Christian' obsession with the trappings of power and status.
In the BBC documentary, 'An Archbishop Like This,' Williams was asked about the Anglican hierarchy and he responded that it had 'bought very deeply' into a cult of status. 'It's one of the most ambiguous things in the whole of that culture--the concern with titles, the concern with little differentiations, the different coloured buttons.'
He added, 'There's something profoundly--I'll say it--anti-Christian in all of that. It's about guarding position, about fencing yourself in. And that is not quite what the Gospel is.'
Describing himself in the interview as a 'gloomy Celt,' Williams acknowledged the possibility of schism because of persistent disagreements over issues. He said that the Bible, for example, is very clear in condemning a heterosexual who indulged in homosexual acts for gratification but he added, 'Does that automatically say that that is the only sort of homosexuality activity there could ever be? What about those people who 'with prayer and thought and seriousness and adulthood say I've never known anything different? What are we to say to them?'
While clearly not ready to endorse the concept of gay marriages, calling that language 'not appropriate,' Williams said, 'I can see a case for acknowledging faithful same-sex relationships.' He added, 'It seems to me rather sad, and rather revealing, that when it comes to sex we suddenly become much less intelligent about our reading of the Bible.'
Williams was officially confirmed at a December 1 ceremony in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, taking an oath of allegiance to the Queen and declaring his assent to the historic 'formularies' of the Church of England. He asked for 'God's guidance as I seek to meet this new challenge--a challenge I face with a sense of inadequacy but also with hope, with joy and enthusiasm.' He will not assume his public duties until after his enthronement in February.
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