by Catherine Pepinster, Independent
Here’s a tale of two versions of the Church of England. This past week, I’ve been talking to some of the churchwardens, parochial church council secretaries and treasurers, curates and vicars, who not only put on services and keep food banks and lunch clubs going, but are responsible for repairing the roofs and rebuilding the buttresses.
And then there’s the other Church of England (CofE) – the one that is represented by its high-ups, that I usually come into contact with at this time of year when the Archbishop of Canterbury hosts his summer party at his Lambeth Palace home.
But this year, there is no clinking of glasses and the archbishop’s apartment lies empty. Justin Welby, who dramatically resigned in November, days after a report into a prolific child abuser associated with the Church of England, finally moved out earlier this summer.
If that departure took a long time, then finding his replacement is taking even longer, and is now predicted to last until the end of the year – 12 months on from his resignation. As my conversations with the people who attend and run Anglican churches highlighted, for them it is business as usual – regardless of Welby quitting just before Christmas.
Meanwhile, Stephen Cottrell, who has the CofE’s number two job as Archbishop of York, can sign off any urgent institutional business, while he offers spiritual leadership by way of his current tour of the North, talking about the Lord’s Prayer.