WebMink
Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Living Parables [SocioPolitico]

This week saw the enthronement of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. As the leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, he is the protestant Pope of 70 million Christian believers, and in the current climate of war the views of Popes are back in the public eye again. The event, a formal and perhaps anachronistic introduction for the new leader, is reported in the UK's 'Independent' by two different voices this weekend. Author, speaker and scholar Elaine Storkey wrote of her experiences covering the event for British television, and broadcaster and writer Janet Street-Porter criticises the man without any mention of his message.

Storkey notes that the television studio was full of the superficial. The editorial team had already decided

that Rowan Williams was certainly already a controversial archbishop with his views on women bishops and homosexual clergy

and that seemed enough for them - the irony Storkey observes is that in fact Williams

was describing how, in the Gospels, there are people who hear what Jesus says and see his miracles but who are unable to listen. Caught up in the minutiae of their own agendas, they treat what he does merely as an interesting phenomenon which has nothing to do with how they live and die

Street-Porter, it seems, only watched, she didn't listen. She uses her column as an opportunity to rehearse tired canards about the Church of England, to deride Williams's colour sense and to make statements like

The most successful church in Britain today functions from a converted warehouse on an industrial estate in Walthamstow, east London. Unlike most parish churches, hundreds arrive early to get a good seat. The service is replayed to more worshippers outside London. This is a club for people of all ages, not just for the middle-class and elderly.

in apparent ignorance of churches like my own or of phenomena like Alpha.

The great irony here, of course, is that Rowan Williams is actually not the liberal extra from an Alan Bennett play that Street-Porter portrays. He is a man of intellect, depth and compassion, one with the courage to speak out on big issues, widely published and a poet, a fine leader for the faith of millions. His little book 'Writing in the Dust' [UK|US] provided a glimpse of the man, present at the 9/11 atrocity in New York. Had she listened to his sermon, or dug a little below her prejudice, maybe she would have spoken with more insight instead of becoming a study for the same parable that Storkey relates:

The sermon was a parable of our culture and spoke with ironic accuracy into that television studio. For nearly two hours, we had watched the enthronement of an archbishop in all its colourful splendour. But who had listened? We had seen everything: images on screens, heard instant opinions but grasped nothing. The words which could have been heard were profound, arresting, challenging, drawing us to the heart of God through scripture, sermon, and song. They urged us to find out who we are and how we might change ourselves and our world.

posted at 7:17 PM (UK) | |