AWWWWW

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

It’s cute when Rowan Williams thinks he’s still relevant:

A week and a half after losing five Anglican bishops to the Catholic Church, the leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion reaffirmed his dedication to ecumenical relations between the two churches — and his belief that female Anglican priests should not be an impediment to union.

While reflecting on progress in Anglican-Catholic relations, Williams admitted to “intractable difficulties” in two areas: disputes over the authority of the pope, and a failure of the two churches “to recognize each other’s ministries fully.”

Williams echoed a statement from his Nov. 2009 address to a Vatican ecumenical conference, when he asked rhetorically “in what way” the ordination of women priests could “compromise the purposes of the church.”

Without delving into the theology of the issue, which, quite frankly, has been beaten to death around here, Dr. Williams unspoken assumption, of course, is that Rome is wrong on women’s ordination while Canterbury is right. But good Anglican that he is, His Grace is quite happy to keep these ecumenical discussions going until the Catholics finally realize exactly how wrong they are.

After all, if genuine intellectual give-and-take was in view here, my gracious lord of Canterbury would have to admit the possibility of a thought he dares not entertain, let alone utter. That maybe it was the Anglicans who’d gotten it wrong and the union with Rome cannot happen until Canterbury not only admits it but essentially shows the door to every female priest anywhere in the Anglican world.

And the moment His Grace even suggests the possibility that Canterbury might have been the church that botched women’s ordination, the US, Canada and a fair chunk of the Church of England, along with their allies, hive off to form their own Communion, groups like ACNA are blasted into a million pieces and any hope of a strong, unified, international Anglican Christianity is gone forever.

Better just to play rhetorical games and muddle through on whatever prestige the office of Archbishop of Canterbury has left.