Is it time for Justin Welby to go?
by Gavin Ashenden, Anglican Ink:
It is a convention in the UK that when a political figure offers leadership on a matter, that is put to the Electorate, and if they are rejected, they resign. So David Cameron rightly resigned his public office the day after the referendum
The Archbishops of the Church of England chose to enter the political debate and used the authority of their office to urge the people of the UK to remain as members of the European Union. Like the Prime minister, their advice was rebuffed by a majority of the electorate.
When the result became known, they slipped out of the political roles they had adopted and slipped into spiritual ones instead. They put their name to a prayer or collect for reconciliation which they released as part of a statement.
Should they consider resigning as David Cameron did?
Of course there is not the slightest prospect that they will; nor even that they might apologise to other Anglicans who felt passionately that the right to have a democratic voice which the EU had removed from the legislative process, was a Christian one worth both struggling and voting for.
If you decide to play a political role don’t you have to live with the political rules? The solution for bishops and Archbishops is of course, “don’t play a political role”. But if you do, why should you claim to be able to shelter behind the spiritual element in your role that you abandoned to make a political point?
Might it not have been better if the Archbishops had not abandoned the political neutrality their office assumes, and kept quiet about the political, economic, and democratic issues that lay behind the Referendum.
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