rowan cantuar on the windsor report, primate's meeting, etc.

Sometimes I feel very encouraged to have Rowan Cantuar at the helm. It seems as though he has a real sense of what the issues actually are, and as this message from him makes plain, what the costs might be. Despite numerous differences of oppinion, I really believe that Archbishop Williams is a devout Christian, and a man of prayer. And its not just the beard and the birkenstocks that convince me of this (indeed I think they might count as evidence to the contrary). He even acknowledges here that the 'ordination' of women to the priesthood was a risk, and possibly a mistake. This is an exciting time, if nothing else, to be an Anglican.

At the very end of the article Archbishop Williams says, "But isn't the ultimate distinctive counter-cultural fact about the church our capacity to live sacrificially for the sake of each other? How we do that, Windsor doesn't tell us; only the Holy Spirit does," to which I say, right. But the Holy Spirit hears within us the message of God's self-revelation in Holy Scripture, in Holy Tradition, and above all in the Passion of our blessed Lord. And those are things to which we have intellective access. Once again, Archbishop Williams has underscored a pressing fact for teh Church today: theology and prayer are joined at the hip. Its impossible to do either well, without doing the other well. It excites me, in part, because that is part of the mission and message (please God) of this Blog: Theology and Devotion.

Let us all pray heartily for the primates as they meet this week, and especially for Archbishop Williams, on whom by God's providence, falls the lion's share of the weight of contemporary Anglican disputations. Let us pray that they will be filled with a zeal for the Catholic faith, that they will not forsake their apostolic authority, and above all that they will be conformed to our Lord Jesus in his full, perfect, and sufficient oblation and satisfaction. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.