Posted on 08/30/2004 12:18:21 PM PDT by Robert Drobot
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, yesterday vented his frustrations with the Church factions warring over homosexuality and also reminded Christians that they did not have a monopoly on the afterlife.
In a rare glimpse of his anger over the row that has overshadowed his first two years at Canterbury, Dr Williams said the debate had lacked grace and patience.
Dr Williams: church needs reasoned debate He said that this had been aggravated by pressure groups with entrenched positions who posted instant reactions to events on their websites.
The Archbishop also admitted to failing to live up to people's expectations, a reference to the disappointment many felt that he had not been more radical over his opposition to the war in Iraq.
He surprised some at the three-day Greenbelt festival in Cheltenham, Glos, by declaring that Muslims can go to heaven.
Dr Williams said that neither he nor any Christian could control access to heaven. "It is possible for God's spirit to cross boundaries," he said.
"I say this as someone who is quite happy to say that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except by Jesus. But how God leads people through Jesus to heaven, that can be quite varied, I think."
During a wide-ranging discussion, Dr Williams reflected his disappointment at the tone of the debate on homosexuality, and his dismay at the vitriol of many of the e-mails he had received.
"It is not so much that we have disagreement in the Church - that happens," he said. "It is more to do with how those disagreements are conducted. The dismissiveness, the rawness of the anger . . . need to be worked with."
Speaking about the furore that followed the appointment of the gay cleric Dr Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading, a post from which Dr John later withdrew, Dr Williams said that both sides had suffered shock.
Dr John, who was recently installed as Dean of St Albans, was also a speaker at the festival yesterday.
The Archbishop said: "On both sides of the debate as it evolved, quite a lot of people had to learn that the Church of England wasn't just them, because what I heard a lot of on both sides of the controversy was 'we thought the Church of England was us and people like us and maybe one or two others who don't matter very much'.
"I was intrigued by the mirror imaging that went on there. There was a sense on both sides, therefore, of shock and dispossession, that it is not all ours after all. It is not full of faithful evangelicals, it is not full of enlightened liberals.
"Very quickly pressure groups can form and settle and decide where they stand and invest in where they stand.
"We haven't had an effective forum in which that process can be slowed, not just for the sake of putting things off but for the sake of mutual understanding. We haven't quite found that forum yet. It is not the General Synod. It is certainly not the trading of websites."
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. -- Matthew 10:38
That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. -- 1John5:23
And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. -- 1John6:65
I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. -- 1John8:24
according to their "holy" book they get there by exploding.
Rowan Williams sums up in one sentence why the Anglican Communion is going to split.
Most importantly, theonl way is the WAY that is accepting Jesus as Lord, and God oftheir lives.
Ugh, sometimes I wonder about these "bishop" etc titles that church gives goofball goodies.
I remember being taught in my all girl Catholic School that Jews couldn't get to heaven because they weren't baptized. I objected and spent a week in detention!!
Nice. He must have attended the same Doublespeak Univeristy that Kerry attended.
His satanic heresy is that of the New Church. While the The One True Faith dogma of Roman Catholicism lays bludgeoned by the possessed within the Roman Catholic Church, the blasphemous pretenders leading the breakaway Church of England have placed The Word of God under their foot.
I pray the Queen of England will banish this fallen angel, and rise to defend God's Word before all of Christendom as well as the pagan and false god religions throughout the world.
Reminds me of Tony Campolo, the man laughing at Ron Brown's funeral with Slick Willie.
When asked if Jesus was the only way, truth and life, he said, "Yes, but Christianity is not the only way to Jesus."
More crap from the catholic church trying to be all inclusive. There are bad people in the world. They do not go to Heaven. There is a price to pay when you are bad. I went to catholic school. Unless of course, the religion has changed. New faith etc. The PC crowd is at it again.
Stop sympathizing with evil people.
Sounds like both you and your teacher needed to read the catechism more carefully than either of you did.
The good Thief went to heaven and he wasn't baptized. "Baptism by desire".
What, pray tell, are you talking about?
I'm unable to get to my own list - my computer is in the process of a very necessary exorcisism.
Thanks.
Earth to tijw: The Archbishop of Canterbury is not a Roman Catholic.
"according to their "holy" book they get there by exploding."
And no doubt if they are homosexual muslims, they get there by exploding right up their Khyber Pass!
In fact, these days, that seems to be the only doctrinal requirement for the job.
"Muslims can go to heaven"
Marines can help them get there.
***While the The One True Faith dogma of Roman Catholicism lays bludgeoned by the possessed within the Roman Catholic Church, ****
The Pope has said much the same as the Archbishop.
Dear Mr. Archbishop,
Muslims who want to destroy America and her allies can go straight to hell. As for the rest of them, unless they start speaking out against the other group, they can join them for all I care.
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