Canadian theologian JI Packer has called upon the Archbishop of Canterbury to resign, saying Dr Rowan Williams is not up to the task of keeping the Anglican Communion alive.In a question-and-answer session following a lecture on June 24 at Holy Trinity Church in Eastbourne, the British-born Dr Packer responded to a question on what he would say to Dr Williams about the Anglican crisis, by stating: “You are not qualified just at the moment to lead the Anglican Communion, for on this issue of whether or not people should yield to homosexual temptation, you are over a barrel.”
Dr Packer, who last month was kicked out of the Anglican Church of Canada by New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham explained that he would say, “before you became Archbishop, you went in to print cautiously approving gay relationships. It is known, and you don’t deny, that you have ordained at least one person who is a practising homosexual.”
“Now you say that you are seeking to uphold the Anglican consensus of the Lambeth Conference of 1998 which says that homosexual behaviour is absolutely off limits, but when asked whether you have changed your own mind on this matter, you say no. I cannot pretend to believe what I don’t believe and all of this of course is documented.”
Dr Packer concluded that “I would say with great respect Archbishop, I believe that the way of wisdom is for you to resign.”
Asked if he endorsed Dr Packer’s views, Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina said he did not. Dr Packer, who now holds Bishop Venables’ licence as a priest of the Province of the Southern Cone was “no spring chicken.”
“He is a year older than the Pope and a year younger than the Queen,” and is entitled to his views, Bishop Venables explained, but they did not constitute the formal views of the Province of the Southern Cone.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce