Archbishop Rowan Williams recently gave a brilliant address at Guildford Cathedral titled The Finality of Christ in a Pluralist World. The Archbishop spoke of defending the uniqueness and finality of Christ, and encountering the truth about God and humanity from a moral, political and philosophical perspective.

The address highlighted the importance of approaching inter faith dialogue with confidence, but also of learning something new:

“If our convictions lead us to believe there is no hope for those outside our own faith or with no faith…” there is a danger of “treating others as if they know nothing, and we have nothing to learn”. ”Belief in the uniqueness and finality of Christ allows us a generous desire to share and a humble desire to learn”.

Jumping to the conclusion of the address, the Archbishop states:

“Belief in the uniqueness and finality of Jesus Christ – for all the assaults made upon it in the modern age – remains for the Christian a way of speaking about hope for the entire human family. And because it’s that, we are bound to say something about it. We are very rightly suspicious of proselytism, of manipulative, bullying, insensitive approaches to people of other faith which treat them as if they knew nothing, as if we had nothing to learn and as if the tradition of their reflection and imagination were of no interest to us or God. God save us from that kind of approach. But God save us also from the nervousness about our own conviction which doesn’t allow us to say that we speak about Jesus because we believe he matters. We believe he matters because we believe that in him human beings find their peace. Their destinies converge and their dignities are fully honored. And all the work that we as Christians want to do for the sake of convergent human destiny and fullness of human dignity has its root in that conviction that there is no boundary around Jesus – that what he is and does and says and suffers is in principle liberatingly relevant to every human being; past, present and future.”

The full transcript of the address can be viewed here:  The audio link for the address is here:

In this video, also available here, Rowan Williams talks of Lent as providing an opportunity to “sweep and clean the room of our own minds and hearts so that the new life really may have room to come in and take over and transform us at Easter.”  The Archbishop says:

“It’s not about feeling gloomy for forty days; it’s not about making yourself miserable for forty days; it’s not even about giving things up for forty days. Lent is springtime. It’s preparing for that great climax of springtime which is Easter – new life bursting through death.”

From America Magazine:

On January 25 Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, accepted the 2009 Campion Award from the editors of America.  In his remarks upon accepting award, he reflected on the idea of a “martyrial ecumenism,” mused on the surprising links between Shakespeare and St. Edmund Campion and emphasized the central place of forgiveness in all relationships.

Drew Christiansen, S.J, the editor in chief of America, introduced the archbishop, and literary editor Patricia A. Kossmann presented Williams with the award. The Campion award is given on a regular basis to a notable Christian person of letters. It is named after St. Edmund Campion, S.J., an English writer and martyr who is honored in both the Anglican and Catholic traditions.

Download audio file (Rowan.mp3)


A tip of the Biretta to Eleanor Braun for pointing me to this.

And thanks to Burgess Laird for the link to this New York Times report on the Trinity Wall Street Conference where Rowan Williams spoke on the subject of theology and economics.

A timely message about hope, human cooperation, and charity.

In a sermon given at All Saints Margaret Street on November 1, Archbishop Rowan Williams reminded his listeners that God does not make himself credible by argument, but by the lives and deaths of faithful people who engage their human journey with courage and hope.

Speaking about our “contemporary anxieties” in the Anglican Communion, Rowan stated:

We need to tell the stories of the Saints to remind ourselves what is possible and within any Christian family. We need to tell the stories of those who have made God credible to us. And within our Anglican family we need to go on telling a few stories about those who have shown us that it is possible to lead lives of Catholic holiness even in the Communion of the See of Canterbury! We need to be reminded of what we have to be grateful for in the lives of those who within our communion and fellowship have lived out God’s presence and made him credible here in this fellowship with these people. 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. 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.

Read the entire sermon here.

It is a brilliant sermon and one that reminds us how to transcend the polarizations of our time.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, reflects on the celebration of Easter:

“At Easter we celebrate just not the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, as if that were an interesting fact that happened many centuries ago.  We celebrate the fact that in words from the Bible, because he is alive, we are alive.  We know that we are held in God’s hands.  That our lives are held firmly and lovingly forever by the mercy of God.  We know we have a future in his love and that nothing can take that away.”

In his sermon at St. Mark’s pro-Cathedral in Alexandria, Egypt, where he is chairing the meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury raised the issue of busyness in congregations today.  Is prayer a substitute for activity, or an activity for which there is no substitute?  From the sermon:

Many years ago I lived in a town where there was a very active church indeed. Outside this church was an enormous noticeboard. It must have been about 6 ft sq. It seemed every moment of the week was taken up by activity. But I’ve no doubt indeed it was a very good church and very careful and loving parish. And yet that noticeboard used to worry me and it still does. It seems to me it speaks of an idea of the church which supposes that the church is about human beings doing things. When you looked at that church you would have thought, what a lot of things they do there. But I’m still wondering if anyone ever asked, does God do things here? It seemed to be just a slight risk that there was hardly any room in the week for God to find his way in among all these activities.

(Ruth Gledhill has transcribed the sermon here).

HT to my brother Rob for this story.

The Annual Meeting of the Compass Rose Society ended with a liturgy of intercessory prayers for the work and witness of Canterbury Cathedral, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and for the provinces and churches of the Communion around the world.

We gathered with the Archbishop around the Compass Rose—the symbol of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Canterbury Compass Rose was placed on the floor of the nave and dedicated by Archbishop Robert Runcie at the closing service of the 1998 Lambeth Conference.

(Pictured here in conversation with Rowan Williams is Sam Candler, Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta and myself. Photo by Susan van der Veer)

I was fascinated with a question that was asked of Archbishop Rowan after his presentation to the Compass Rose Society about the role of human ego in the competing tensions we face within the Anglican Communion.  After a quiet pause, the Archbishop responded:

“The great temptation I suppose for any believer and any minster is to start with self’s agenda and fit God around it.  The tough thing about discipleship, expressed a great deal more by our Lord in the Gospels, is to see God’s agenda as providing the context, substance, and meaning of the self.  So ego in the Church is almost always about some kind of relativizing of the crucifying demand of the Gospel to my or our agenda.  And that’s why to the campaigners of left or right in the Church we need sometimes to say, ‘Just go on scrutinizing how far the campaign and the winning becomes the thing and how far the kingdom becomes the thing.’”

In a moment of self-deprecating humor, Rowan added, “I don’t know if I’ve said this to you before but it’s the Williams theory of ego—my own personal theory of ego.”  Here, he jokingly slapped his wrist acknowledging the self-absorption of his own statement.  The room broke out in robust laughter.

“There are two sources of ego: sanctified and unsanctified.  The unsanctified egoist is so absorbed with himself or herself that you feel diminished by him.  The sanctified egoist, is content being himself and in their joy about who they are in themselves, draw others positively in and makes them feel more than they are.”

Speaking of Desmond Tutu as an example of one with a sanctified ego, Rowan said,
“Desmond loves being Desmond Tutu, there’s not doubt about it.  But the effect of it is that everybody else loves being themselves more.  An unsanctified egoist makes you feel less happy with yourself, jealous, marginalized or put down.”

The “Williams Theory” on ego certainly rings true, particularly when conflict is involved.  Am I content with myself in such a way that my words and actions make others feel enlarged?  Or am I so self-preoccupied that my words and actions have the effect of diminishing others?  Diagnostic questions for sure.