http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,806744,00.html
Evangelicals' threat to new archbishop
Direct action threat over liberal views on sexuality
Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent
Tuesday October 8, 2002
The Guardian
Evangelical fundamentalists last night stepped up their campaign to oust
Rowan Williams, the incoming Archbishop of Canterbury, before he even takes
up his post, by threatening to take "direct action" against him.
The council of the Church Society, the Church of England's oldest
evangelical body, joined a younger evangelical pressure group called Reform,
which is also opposed to Dr Williams, in calling on him to recant his
supposedly liberal views on sexuality or stand down.
Following an emergency meeting, the 167-year-old society, whose leaders met
the archbishop last week, proclaimed their continued opposition to his
appointment and called on all Anglicans to spurn him.
The move is the latest stage of an increasingly aggressive attempt to
destabilise the new archbishop, whose leftwing political views are regarded
with deep suspicion by the conservative fringes of the evangelical movement.
Some evangelicals object to Dr Williams's acknowledgement that he has
ordained a gay priest, something many bishops have done, and that those who
have sex outside marriage need not necessarily be spurned. The new
archbishop has repeatedly assured them that he respects the canons of the
church.
Nevertheless, the society said: "It is clear that he prefers his private
judgment to the voice of scripture, to the voice of tradition and to the
common mind of the church. As such he can only be a focus of disunity.
"The council... called upon loyal Anglicans to pray specifically that Rowan
Williams would see the error in his teaching, change his views or stand
down," it said.
The society claimed to have drawn up an "action plan," including calling on
bishops and primates of the 70 million worldwide Anglican communion, of
which archbishops of Canterbury are the leaders, to distance themselves from
Dr Williams's doctrinal and ethical position. It promised it would be
"taking steps towards appropriate direct action".
It added that Dr Williams remained on the editorial board of a journal
called Theology and Sexuality which, six months ago, published articles
allegedly commending homosexual behaviour.
Despite its claim, the society does not represent the common mind of the
church. Dr Williams, currently Archbishop of Wales, was chosen by the crown
appointments commission of church members, including evangelicals, and his
appointment was endorsed by the prime minister and the Queen.
He is due to succeed George Carey, who retires this month, and will be
formally enthroned at Canterbury cathedral in February.
Asked what form direct action might take, the Rev George Curry, the
society's chairman, said: "Watch this space." Presumably it could involve a
small minority of parishes repudiating the new archbishop and seeking
alternative oversight or even demonstrations at services where Dr Williams
is present.
Church of England bishops, who have hitherto largely kept their heads down
during the row, are meeting next week to discuss their response to the
evangelical extremists' challenge, which appears to have grown in the
absence of a robust rebuttal.
A letter by senior theologians in today's Guardian, however, repudiates the
evangelicals' tactics, calling them unseemly and contrary to biblical
teaching.
On the BBC's Thought for the Day yesterday, Angela Tilby, vice-principal of
Westcott House, Cambridge, accused Dr Williams's opponents of presumption
and blackmail. "It is in fact a thoroughly aggressive way to behave. It is
attempting to force an issue by emotional violence... manipulating to get
your way is often preferable to painstaking negotiation," she said.
Last week, Dr Williams said he was deeply saddened. "Matters of sexuality
should not have the priority or centrality that Reform and the Church
Society have tried to give them. The archbishop cannot withdraw his
appointment since so many, including evangelicals, have urged him to take
the post... the archbishop believes it to be his duty under God."
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