Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, not only has an impossible task in trying to keep the Anglican communion together, but his well-intentioned attempt to mollify both sides in the major issue that has already divided the Anglican communion, the ordination as Bishop of an openly Gay man, V. Eugene Robinson, in the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire, and the Episcopal Church's largely embracing LGBT people, is doomed to failure. As well it should be doomed to failure!
There can be no comprimise with the Gospel of grace, God's unmerited favor to ALL those whom He chose before the worlds were formed (e.g., Ephesians 1:4-5), and there can be no comprimise with haters, or those who preach and practice the exclusion of others, with the commensurate hateful rhetoric and discriminatory actions within and without the organized Church!
Indeed, one shouldn't even attempt to compromise with haters or the preachers of exclusion, or the practitioners of discrimination, as to do so places the spokespeople for exclusion and discrimination on the same elevated par as those who are, in fact, preaching and living out the only Gospel to be found in Christianity: The Gospel of grace (God's unmerited favor to us.), faith (Trusting God over and above seen circumstances.), love, peace, reconciliation, and inclusiveness!
Moreover, those who seek common ground with those who discriminate against others may not realize that God may be actively working to demolish denominationalism and the institutional Church, and is encouraging and leading Christians to develop new, more authentic, ways to worship Him and live Godly lives, than the traditional church and denominational structures have hitherto afforded them. The attempt to keep together man-made institutions, such as denominations, at any cost, may well ignore God's new ways of designing His Church to be a Church more than in name only, but a Church that embraces ALL of His children who seek to worship Him, and fulfill the ministries He has uniquely ordained for each one of His children.
A tragedy for the attempt by Rowan Williams to mollify the conservative wing of Anglicanism, a wing that is quite formidable, especially due to the pugnacity of Archbishop Peter Akinola, and the many members the Anglican communion has in Africa, is that he will be disliked, if not reviled, by both sides in this fight! And, at the end of this debacle, he may well find himself in a psychologically and spiritually weak position, as he will not have been true to himself, and true to his knowledge that God embraces ALL of His children.
I truly believe that Williams is sensitive enough to know this fact, and if he capitulates on this God-given principle, he will not only be thwarting the will of God, but he will be, undoubtedly, thwarting the will of God for his life, and that can well cause a malaise that, for a man of his sensitivity and gifts, he may never be able to overcome.
He is in a position to make a cold turkey choice: Seek to preserve the Anglican communion at all costs, or advocate for justice for all of God's children, showing that God's tent is big and wide enough to embrace all of His children!
So, if he continues to seek to maintain what "communion" Anglicanism now has, he may well wind up being hated by both sides, and he may well wind up hating himself for not doing the Godly thing, and standing up for what he knows is right!
I wouldn't be as concerned about him as I am if I for one minute felt that he wasn't a Godly man who is attempting the impossible, and is seeking unity at the expense of justice, and, by so doing, he will wind up with neither, and may well, perhaps, wind up a spiritually and psychologically broken man. And he certainly doesn't deserve that fate!
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