| THE ONE original piece of journalism to mark Easter was Riazat Butt’s journey around New Hampshire with its Bishop in Holy Week for The Guardian. It even added one new sin to our knowledge of him, though this was buried a long way down the story.
“In between mouthfuls of coconut cream pie, he told the story of how, when he was once getting ready for New Orleans mardi gras, he struggled to find the finishing touch to his Carmen Miranda outfit. He had the outsized fruit and the hat; all he lacked were hooped earrings.
“When he was in the bathroom, he noticed the rings on the shower curtain and decided to use those instead of jewellery. It is an unconventional image, but Robinson delights in non-conformism. He carries his bishop’s staff in a rifle case, has a police-radar detector attached to his dashboard, which also responds to microwave ovens, and holidays on the glamorous island of St Bart’s in the Caribbean.”
It’s not the earrings, or the rifle case that shock me. It is the police-radar detector. This is a device that exists only to enable us to break speed limits. I am happy to admit that I probably break some speed limit every time I drive anywhere. But I don’t preach sermons about the environment and our duty to it, which I suspect Bishop Robinson does.
The rest of his talk didn’t strike me as terribly convincing, either: “His official exclusion came as a blow to Robinson, who told a spring gathering of the US Episcopal Church house of bishops that he felt abandoned by Williams. He wept during the address. ‘It was the hardest time I’ve had since my consecration,’ he said, driving along Interstate 93. He suggested it was not his consecration or homosexuality that was tearing apart the Anglican Communion, but a failure of the leadership.
“‘I don’t know if it was Rowan’s intention to divide the US house of bishops but he’s done the very thing he was trying to avoid through his action or lack of action. It mystifies me that he has never commented on statements Akinola [the Archbishop of Nigeria] has made about homosexuality,’ he said.”
This may or may not represent a confusion in the reporter’s mind between the US House of Bishops and the Anglican Communion. It is very hard to see anything Dr Williams could have done to unite the House of Bishops on this issue more than he actually did, which was to make them all feel patronised and slighted, regardless of their opinions.
THERE WAS no shortage of leadership on offer from the Roman Catholic Church in this country, which mounted a tremendous and co-ordinated attack on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. The Church’s problem was a shortage of followers.
It even provoked Polly Toynbee into clarity and good sense: “As with any other Bill, nothing stops any MP voting with their conscience. However, ministers who take fine salaries for joining the government must abide by collective decision-making. That means pooling their consciences. If they don’t like it, the exit door to the backbenches is always open.
“Fundamental questions of who rules are raised if Catholic ministers get a special dispensation denied to other ministers. John Denham and Robin Cook had to resign over the war — no escape clause for their consciences. Imagine in years to come when we have many Islamic MPs and ministers, what an outcry would be caused if some Saudi cleric told them how to vote. These Catholic ministers risk raising unpleasant ghosts if they demand their allegiance to the Vatican has priority over other ministers’ consciences.”
IT WASN’T just Easter this weekend, but Purim, too. This is a traditionally an occasion for elaborate practical jokes, none better than the one in The Jewish Chronicle.
It announced that the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, tiring of Chelsea Football Club, was to buy up the United Synagogues. “Although Mr Abramovich has expressed confidence in the work done over the years by Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, he is said to be enthusiastic about bringing in a new director of religion to work alongside Sir Jonathan in rejuvenating the organisation. He is also said to be considering investing in other personnel. Mr Abramovich plans to use the bait of higher salaries to recruit world-class rabbis from the continent and the USA.”
LESS EASY to explain was Dr Williams’s contribution to The Guardian’s series of booklets of modern British poets. He wrote a foreword to the Auden pamphlet, which contained the following two sentences: “The technical skill is always exceptional. You’d call it dazzling if it were not so all-pervading (if not unobtrusive, at least) apparently intrinsic to the poetic argument and energy.”
The fact that the subs let this through suggests rather humiliatingly that they no longer expect anything he says to make any sense at all.
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