Lord George Carey has come out to express his dismay over a story published in last weekend's edition of the Sunday Telegraph which claimed that the former Archbishop of Canterbury blamed his successor, Dr Rowan Williams, for the crisis facing the Anglican Communion.
The newspaper report was based on a talk that Lord Carey gave six weeks ago at Virginia Theological Seminary in which he reflected on the current crisis of the Anglican Communion from his perspective as the retired Archbishop of Canterbury.The article reported Lord Carey as claiming that the Anglican Communion had fallen apart since he was succeeded by Rowan Williams and that his speech at the seminary could be seen as a "direct attack on Dr Williams's ability to maintain unity in the Church".
Lord Carey issued a statement, however, in which he said he was "dismayed" to see the front-page article, entitled "Church has fallen apart since I was in charge, says Carey", which claimed that his remarks would send his relationship with present Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams to a "new low".
"The gist of my talk about the causes of the divisions within Anglicanism was that although the current crisis was caused by the consecration of a practising homosexual in the United States, there was a crisis of authority within Anglicanism which had been with us for a very long time indeed."
He continued: "There are no grounds for taking my 'reflection' as an attack on the Archbishop of Canterbury. In fact the misleading nature of the Sunday Telegraph report says more about contemporary news values than it does about either myself or Dr Rowan Williams. The speech was supportive of him and his leadership in this current crisis and the Windsor Report."
Lord Carey said the Sunday Telegraph "selectively quoted" from his talk to suggest he was criticising the ministry of Dr Williams.There are no grounds for taking my 'reflection' as an attack on the Archbishop of Canterbury. In fact the misleading nature of the Sunday Telegraph report says more about contemporary news values than it does about either myself or Dr Rowan Williams.
Lord George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury
He added that the quotations used in the newspaper report "were an entirely misleading interpretation of my talk".
One quote in the article stated, "When I left office at the end of 2002 I felt the Anglican Communion was in good heart".
