Church backs leader over Sharia storm
Sunday, 17 February 2008
Jimmy Burns
CHURCH of England representatives rallied round the archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams after he publicly repented for the "distress and misunderstanding" caused by his stance on Islamic law. The spiritual leader of the world's 77m Anglicans provoked a political and religious controversy early this month by saying in a widely reported BBC interview that the introduction of some aspects of Sharia law in Britain was unavoidable.
Dr Williams made his statement after it emerged that the UK prime minister Gordon Brown had personally telephoned the archbishop later encouraging him to defuse his biggest crisis since he took office five years ago.
On February 11, Dr Williams told the General Synod, the Church of England's national assembly, that in the spirit of the penitential Christian season of Lent, he assumed responsibility and sought forgiveness for the controversy.
"I must . . . take responsibility for any unclarity. . . and for any misleading choice of words that has helped to cause distress or misunderstanding among the public at large and especially among my fellow Christians," he told the Synod.
Dr Williams went on to assert the right of "a pastor of England" to address issues around the "perceived concerns of other religious communities, and to try and bring them into sharper focus".
But he steered clear of referring by name to Sharia law, and emphasised that he was not advocating that "the law of Islam" should be given equal status to the law of the land, as many critics had interpreted his interview and a lecture he later gave on the issue. "We are not talking about parallel jurisdictions; and I tried to make clear that there could be no 'blank cheques' in this regard, in particular as regards some of the sensitive questions about the status and liberties of women. The law of the land still guarantees for all the basic components of human dignity," he said.
Dr Williams later moved on to what aides suggested had been the original text drafted before the row, referring to the debate within the Church of England on issues of sexuality, and the role played by some of its bishops in African countries such as Kenya and Zimbabwe in defending human rights.
He ended by acknowledging that he may have underestimated the extent to which the complex language he invoked to call for greater religious and social engagement may have been ill-suited for a news agenda dominated by the urgent requirement for soundbites in the 24-hour media.
Being an Anglican, Dr Williams said, meant challenging issues with integrity but also showing a "degree of care and hesitation about how to tackle them in public".
"Our current style of electronic global communication is manifestly not designed to nurture these virtues, and it has a toxic effect on all sorts of other areas of communicating with each other," he said.
The assembled delegates - over 450 bishops, clergy, and lay men and women - rose almost to a person to applaud Dr Williams as he addressed them and gave him a similarly warm ovation after the speech.
Dissenters were muted and those who called for his resignation were reduced to a minority of two.
"Dr Williams has shown outstanding leadership and signalled that the Church must move on from this controversy," said Nicholas Reade, the bishop of Blackburn.
Under syndication arrangement with FE
CHURCH of England representatives rallied round the archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams after he publicly repented for the "distress and misunderstanding" caused by his stance on Islamic law. The spiritual leader of the world's 77m Anglicans provoked a political and religious controversy early this month by saying in a widely reported BBC interview that the introduction of some aspects of Sharia law in Britain was unavoidable.
Dr Williams made his statement after it emerged that the UK prime minister Gordon Brown had personally telephoned the archbishop later encouraging him to defuse his biggest crisis since he took office five years ago.
On February 11, Dr Williams told the General Synod, the Church of England's national assembly, that in the spirit of the penitential Christian season of Lent, he assumed responsibility and sought forgiveness for the controversy.
"I must . . . take responsibility for any unclarity. . . and for any misleading choice of words that has helped to cause distress or misunderstanding among the public at large and especially among my fellow Christians," he told the Synod.
Dr Williams went on to assert the right of "a pastor of England" to address issues around the "perceived concerns of other religious communities, and to try and bring them into sharper focus".
But he steered clear of referring by name to Sharia law, and emphasised that he was not advocating that "the law of Islam" should be given equal status to the law of the land, as many critics had interpreted his interview and a lecture he later gave on the issue. "We are not talking about parallel jurisdictions; and I tried to make clear that there could be no 'blank cheques' in this regard, in particular as regards some of the sensitive questions about the status and liberties of women. The law of the land still guarantees for all the basic components of human dignity," he said.
Dr Williams later moved on to what aides suggested had been the original text drafted before the row, referring to the debate within the Church of England on issues of sexuality, and the role played by some of its bishops in African countries such as Kenya and Zimbabwe in defending human rights.
He ended by acknowledging that he may have underestimated the extent to which the complex language he invoked to call for greater religious and social engagement may have been ill-suited for a news agenda dominated by the urgent requirement for soundbites in the 24-hour media.
Being an Anglican, Dr Williams said, meant challenging issues with integrity but also showing a "degree of care and hesitation about how to tackle them in public".
"Our current style of electronic global communication is manifestly not designed to nurture these virtues, and it has a toxic effect on all sorts of other areas of communicating with each other," he said.
The assembled delegates - over 450 bishops, clergy, and lay men and women - rose almost to a person to applaud Dr Williams as he addressed them and gave him a similarly warm ovation after the speech.
Dissenters were muted and those who called for his resignation were reduced to a minority of two.
"Dr Williams has shown outstanding leadership and signalled that the Church must move on from this controversy," said Nicholas Reade, the bishop of Blackburn.
Under syndication arrangement with FE