Letter in Church Instances from a frontline parish minister deserves to be on the prime of the agenda for the Crown Appointments Fee (CNC) because it decides who must be the following Archbishop of Canterbury.
Reverend James Dudley-Smith's checklist of private and non secular {qualifications} for the perfect candidate within the January 10 concern of the journal is value quoting in full:
“Somebody who has actual expertise of operating a parish.
Somebody who is aware of that the Church of England is its native church buildings.
Somebody who would gladly throw away the honorific titles and mitres.
Somebody who does the laborious work of following due course of, or altering due course of.
Somebody who will not be making an attempt to run the Church of England.
Somebody who didn't attempt to push the diocesan technique.
Somebody who will educate the doctrine of Christ because the Church of England has accepted it.
Somebody I can see Jesus in.
Somebody who’s unable to create a textual content means the alternative of what it means.
Somebody who could be prepared to get the identical scholarship as the remainder of us.
Somebody who would pray and work for different followers of Jesus.
Somebody who will do way more church than politics.
Somebody who isn't all-powerful – and is aware of it.
Somebody who has an excellent expertise with household and colleagues.
I’ll maintain praying.”
James serves as Rector of St John's Church in Yeovil, Somerset, and is the son of the well-known evangelical hymn author Timothy Dudley-Smith (1926-2024), previously Bishop of Thetford, Norfolk.
In his Church Instances letter, he can specific his opinion with highly effective subtlety. The possibilities of a humble Christian, a devoted instructor of the biblical religion and a pastor with a service coronary heart moderately than an influence careerist to be appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in right this moment's Church of England are subsequent to nil.
Save the Parish campaigner Emma Thompson put it effectively in her article The Instances newspaper with the title Justin Welby's successor wants to separate 'church upstairs'which was printed on January 6 – the day he resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury:
“The preliminary crucial is to nominate a pious, unifying and humble individual with management abilities to take cost of the highest paperwork.
“One of many issues is the small measurement of the sector in the event you restrict it to 42 diocesan bishops and exclude these approaching 70 (the retirement age for clergy). enchantment to and alienate potential supporters.
“Nevertheless, it’s broadly believed that Welby has 'packed' the bishops' bench with others who share his managerial model of church behaviour. The various names being floated as potential successors could be an unbalanced continuation of his wing of the Church.”
As CNC members collect beneath the chairmanship of Lord (Jonathan) Evans, former MI5 director-general, to appoint Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as the following Archbishop of Canterbury, they could be effectively suggested to amend certainly one of Dudley-Smith's factors.
He says the perfect Archbishop of Canterbury shouldn’t be “able to making the textual content the alternative of what it clearly means”. It will in all probability be higher to state that the candidate must be somebody who will not be prepared twist the plain that means of biblical texts.
The Order of Widespread Prayer for the consecration of an archbishop or bishop states that the candidate should be “ready with all devoted diligence to banish and drive away all false and unusual doctrines opposite to the phrase of God.”
To refute a heresy, it’s definitely essential to have a deep mental understanding of it. So shouldn't the perfect Archbishop of Canterbury be somebody intellectually able to persuasive heresies, however spiritually and morally unwilling to take action?
This assortment of prayer books for the archbishop at his ordination resonates strongly with Dudley-Smith's checklist of non secular {qualifications}:
“Most Merciful Father, we beseech Thee to ship Thy heavenly blessing upon this Thy servant; and so endow him together with your Holy Spirit, in order that within the preaching of your Phrase he could not solely with all persistence be zealous to reprove, entreat and reprove. and doctrine, however it might even be for individuals who imagine a sound instance, in phrase, in dialog, in love, in religion, in purity; faithfully fulfills his course, he could on the final day obtain the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Choose, who lives and reigns one God with the Father and the Holy Spirit on this planet with out finish, could obtain. Amen.”
Julian Mann is a former Church of England vicar, now an evangelical journalist based mostly in Lancashire.
