Archbishop Criticises Church Hierarchy for Lack of Leadership

Church leaders have been criticised by the Archbishop of York for failing to provide sufficient guidance and management. Dr John Sentamu has launched the stinging attack on the Church hierarchy, saying that their lack of leadership has led to the Church becoming weakened in its mission to society.

|TOP|Within the Archbishop’s comments, reference was made to the Church’s war on homosexuality, where he explained that the “all-or-nothing attitude” used by both sides in the debate had to be stamped out, and that the Church had to learn how to hold meaningful dialogue with opponents.

Dr Sentamu was presenting a new report entitled, ‘Into the New Quinquennium’, in which he delivered a rallying call to the Anglican Church to find common language.

“We can’t go on as we are. It’s about building truthful relationships with one another. It’s by finding common ground with those with whom we come into contact; avoiding a know-it-all attitude; making others feel accepted,” he said.

The tone of conversation was also identified as an area that needed drastic improvement: “Our conversation, like our behaviour, should be holy – where we know clearly that we will not agree but are committed to a wider need to keep the conversation going.”

In particular, Dr Sentamu commented that a lack of clarity between the House of Bishops, the Archbishops’ Council, the Church Commissioners and the General Synod was making the struggle to become an effective Church much harder, reports the Church of England newspaper.

|AD|He said, “The time has come for the House of Bishops to offer real leadership in this Synod, which would help this Synod as a whole to hold and shape a vision for the Church of England.”

“Two different views are emerging from the House [of Bishops] on how we respond to cultural pressures on these issues [sex outside marriage], and the Civil Partnerships Act has been a catalyst in exacerbating these divisions.”

Other Church leaders have backed the call from the Archbishop saying that the Church desperately needed to take more of a stand on issues such as the Civil Partnerships Acts to keep its integrity, and had to halt continuing quarrelling.

The Rev Mark Ireland, of the Lincoln Diocese’s Mission Division, said that the Church needed to be “winning the battle of ideas”.

“We’re working in a very hostile intellectual climate. We need to be convincing people that Christianity is true and reasonable and this is a rational decision they can make. We need to research and encourage good practise in apologetics and evangelism,” concluded Ireland.