The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Advent Letter

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Advent Letter, sent when most of Advent was behind
us, is being treated in the media, and particularly the internet as a curate’s egg. Good
in parts. With one person’s good bit, being another person’s bad bit.

The path the Archbishop of Canterbury has chosen is to set aside and not even state
his personal convictions. He is attempting to "articulate the mind of the Communion."
One may disagree with this as an appropriate model for leadership. It would be
reckless, however, to argue that he is not in touch with where the communion is at.

Let me add some pebbles into the pond – the ripples that they form will probably soon
be lost in much larger waves.

Primates – these are “your bishops”

I found my ecclesiological teeth on edge when the Archbishop of Canterbury

addresses the primates and sees bishops in the province to which the particular
primate belongs as "your bishops." This kind of pyramidal presupposition is the lens
through which the situation is viewed. It is the approach of the draft Covenant which
has the primates as the magisterium, the final arbiters. Read more…