Williams Criticised by Channel 4 Presenter as "Failing to Engage" the Public

The Channel 4 television news presenter, Jonathan Snow has scorned the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rev Rowan Williams, and accused him of "running scared" of public debate due to his fear of promoting a firm stance on some key moral issues, which may have led to further disagreements within the Church of England.

The news host stated that Williams had "failed to engage" with the public since he took up his position in 2002. Snow commented that the Archbishop was "theologically opaque" as well as "living in fear of a schism".

It seems that the criticism has come after Rev Rowan Williams refused Channel 4’s invitation to appear and comment in one of their programmes, which was discussing the relevance of the Old Testament’s Ten Commandments in the modern world.

Snow is the presenter for the special feature created by Channel 4 called ‘The New Ten Commandments”. The programme features leaders from all major faith groups in the UK including Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Sikh organisations and churches.

Dr Williams refused to take part in the programme after being approached a number of times, and in the end the Bishop of London, Rev Richard Chartres agreed to represent the Church of England on the show instead.

However, Snow expressed his frustration and disappointment at Williams’ refusal. He said that he was stunned by the Archbishop’s reaction and that "the real pitch was to get the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church."

Snow said, "The extraordinary thing is that one of the four terrestrial channels is devoting that much time to such a good issue - the core of anybody's belief - and the established Church wasn't engaged."

"I think he [the Archbishop] is running scared. They've just utterly gone to ground for fear of upsetting either one or other wing of the Church, I suspect. I mean they're obviously living in fear of schism.

"We were told that Rowan Williams would be a great breath of fresh air but he has simply failed to engage. He seems to be running scared of all press and I've yet to see a proper interview with him that isn't full of theologically opaque statements.

"My father was a bishop [of Whitby] so I know something about the inner workings of the Church of England and I must say that the Chief Rabbi, the cardinal, the head of the Muslim Association were all incredibly keen.

"We made very many calls months and months ahead of the programme and they didn't want to touch it with a barge pole. It wasn't that he couldn't do it or anything because we gave him four months' warning.

"The point was the Catholic Church leapt to it immediately. They said, who would you like, what sort of a voice would you like? Whereas the Church of England was looking for every which way not to do it."

However, leaping to the defence of Rev Rowan Williams was Mr Jennings, who said, "It is absolute nonsense to claim that the Archbishop's decision to decline this particular request should be cast as he, or the Church of England, running scared of public debate."

He reported, "Not every request that is made can be accepted and the fact that a very senior Church of England bishop is making a contribution to the programme seriously undermines these criticisms. The simple truth is that, although the project was an excellent one with much to commend it, a number of things occurred during our discussions with the production company which caused us to lose confidence in the process."

Jennings continued to defend Williams by concluding, "The Archbishop of Canterbury has done a great deal of engagement with the media since his appointment; the fact that he chooses his own agenda has sometimes proved a stumbling block for those who want to dictate what he should do and say."

The Channel 4 programme, which is scheduled to be aired at 7pm GMT on February 26th, surveyed 65,000 people across the UK to find out what the public thought about the relevancy of the Ten Commandments in the modern day society. Included in the programme is a newly created list of 20 commandments, produced in accordance with the survey.

However, the programme has been criticised by some corners of the religious world. The general secretary of the Lord’s Day Observance Society condemned the programme by saying, "This sort of thing is just an illogical modern trend to make faith easier but living a Christian life in this kind of world is never easy."