Williams: let's compromise and do it my way

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Oct 03, 2005

The Archbishop of Canterbury drops back, pumps right ...

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, may decline to consecrate women if the Church decides to allow them to become bishops.

... and throws left.

Under the proposal, Dr Williams would forgo his role as the primary consecrator of bishops in the south of England, delegating the task to another bishop.

Six points. And the defense is supposed to cheer that they didn't lose more quickly:

Senior insiders believe that all but the most diehard opponents of women bishops would feel able to remain under the archbishop's authority if he did not consecrate women personally.

Unbelievable. The progs get the only things that matter; the cons get an autographed Tootsie-Pop. Imagine if this thinking were recast in its ideological mirror-image, addressed to proponents of women's ordination in 1975: the plan is that women are never to be validly ordained, but allowed to dress up for a mock ordination ceremony while receiving a Certificate of Participation -- "All but the most diehard advocates of women's ordination would be content with this compromise..." Right.

The advantage of the plan, they argue, is that it falls well short of the extreme demands by the leaders of Forward in Faith, the traditionalist umbrella group, for a parallel church-within-a-church.

Archbishop Akinola, call your office.