The Centre Cannot Hold

I’m not a Christian, nor even religious, but I have respect for Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury. I say current, because it was announced today that he will be stepping down at the end of the year from his post and returning to academia.

I couldn’t resist a wry smile at this quote from the article:

…he has been respected on all sides for his gifts as a preacher of great eloquence and flashes of clarity.

Yes, “flashes of clarity” – I confess that I find his writing a bit of a struggle to comprehend. A clear writer he is not. I sometimes amuse myself by putting his prose through the reading comprehension tester in Microsoft Word. Inevitably it will rate the text as being difficult to understand.

I think that he’s basically a good man, who has been trying to do an impossible job as leader of the Anglican Church. It will probably come as a relief to be able to pass on the poisoned chalice to his successor. That looks as though it may well be John Sentamu, whose hard-line views will contrast greatly with Williams. I can’t say that I feel particularly well-disposed towards Sentamu, based on his past performance. Still, I shouldn’t think that’s going to worry him one iota.