by Tim Wyatt, Psephizo
Tim Wyatt is an interesting and often astute commentator on things Church of England. Ten days ago he expanded an article he had written in the New Statesman, setting out the challenges facing whoever will be appointed next Archbishop of Canterbury, in a much longer piece on his substack.
Tim has interviewed a number of people, and thus in principle drawn on a range of opinion. He makes some important points—but my sense is that there is more to be said, and what has been said needs to be put into a different context.
My first concern would be to completely reframe the terms of the discussion. Tim entitles his longer piece ‘Make or Break’, as though the future of the C of E depends entirely on this appointment. He couches the opening conversation in more modest terms:
In just a few weeks (we don’t know the precise dates) the CNC will reconvene for a third time to begin selecting the winner. What state is the Church of England in? What should the priorities for the new archbishop be? What is in their in-tray, and what should be in there instead?
But he ends the article (spoiler alert!) with a much more dramatic summary, which is in keeping with his New Statesman article:
Pulled in these different directions, the Church is in need of a leader with a clear sense of where it’s headed. Make the right choice, and there may still be a way back for the church, albeit to a smaller and humbler version of what it once was. But choose the wrong shepherd, and the flock may be lost for good.