What the reactions to the new Archbishop do tell us

Readers will be familiar by now with my own take on the change of personnel at the top of the Church of England.  I don’t think it was ever going to make much difference because the issues we should have with the CofE go back  further and down deeper than individual personalities. If you have chosen to stay with the Church of England through the past 40-50 years then nothing is likely to change your mind now.

So, in reality, reactions tell us more about the people giving them than the appointment herself.

Take this article in Evangelicals Now. It tells us everything that is wrong with Anglican Conservative Evangelicals and sadly about where EN is too.

Supposing that you differ with me and think there has been a case for staying in the CofE, then you might think there are things that you need to assess about a new Archbishop. Those should really be the same tests as in 1 Timothy 3 for an elder.  And thus means that yes, complementarians will have specific questions of their own. However, all Evangelicals  should have questions about the new Archbishop’s grasp of the Gospel and their understanding and application of the authority of Scripture.  But we are told nothing about this

Instead we are treated to a rant which manages to miss the mark whilst coming across as personal and ungracious.  There is also something elitist and snobbish.  She has had the wrong type of training  and experience.  And yes, without dealing seriously with complementarian concerns, the author’s dismissive suggestion that the new AB only got her present role through being a woman managed to come across as sexist too.

Frankly this reflects the kind of problem that conservative evangelicals in the Church of England have managed to create for themselves (as a group. I’m not commenting on individual friends).  Noone really is sure what it is that they are upset and grumpy about anymore, they just seem to be grumpy, ungracious and cantankerous  but without clarity of what really matters. 

We need to be careful that we don’t become characterized by the same mistakes.