Archbishop Rowan: 'God knows what the future holds.'

From Ruth Gledhill - Times Online (UK) via VirtueOnline:

November 12, 2009

The Archbishop of Canterbury has pleaded with the Church of England's Catholic Anglicans to remain in communion with Canterbury and resist joining the Pope's new Anglican Ordinariate. He referred to the 'chaotic and uncertain' future of the Anglican Communion but insisted that it was still possible to be holy, Catholic and Anglican.

Preaching at All Saints Margaret Street on All Saints' Day in a sermon just released to me today [family commitments meant I couldn't attend the service, to my great regret], Dr Rowan Williams made reverent reference to the relics of St Therese.

He said it was possible 'to lead lives of Catholic holiness even in the Communion of the See of Canterbury.'

He continued: 'God knows what the future holds for any of us for any of our ecclesiastical institutions, but we can at least begin with what we can be sure of; that God has graced us with the lives of Saints; that God has been credible in this fellowship with these people.'

He said: 'This church with its very particular place in the history of the Church of England is one small but significant facet of that great mystery and that great gift. And at times when the future seems more than usually chaotic and uncertain, it doesn’t hurt simply to give thanks.'

The service marked the 150th anniversary of the consecration of All Saints, one of London's most noted centres of Catholic Anglican devotion.

There might be more from the Archbishop when he speaks at the RSA tonight at the final Tony Blair Faith Foundation seminar on faith and development. And of course he is due to go to Rome himself next week, when he will have an audience with the Pope.

Of course one of the interesting aspects of Archbishop Rowan's own eccesiology illustrated by both sermons is his own innate Catholicism. If he weren't Archbishop of Canterbury, who knows.....?