Archbishop of Canterbury blasts ‘inward looking’ Church of England
By Harry Farley, Christian Today:
Justin Welby has expressed immense frustration at the Church of England’s inward focus, urging churchgoers to instead concentrate on ‘outrageous inequality’, oppression, cruelty and abuse.
The Archbishop of Canterbury described meetings about internal politics as the worst part of his job and urged churches to ‘look outward’ as he launched a global prayer and evangelism initiative.
Thy Kingdom Come is part of a broader trend of churches around the world, previously split by division and disagreement, working together, he said.
It is designed to unite more than 50 denominations across 85 countries through ten days of prayers in May.
‘One of my biggest frustrations in the church, as indeed in most institutions, is it is much easier to talk about what is going on inside it than what is going on outside,’ an exasperated Welby told an audience of clergy and representatives from different churches around the UK at Lambeth Palace today.
‘It is not more satisfying. In fact it is unbelievably frustrating. Someone once described a meeting as where a group of people can decide on something about which not a single one of us agrees.
‘In the church we can get together to meet, to pray, to worship and we absolutely focus inwardly. We leave thinking, “that is not how we want to be” and every single person there thinks, “this is not how we want to be” but they still do it.
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