Analyzing Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams' speech in Rome

Fr. Dwight Longenecker has a concise analysis of the main points of the speech that Rowan Williams gave in Rome this past week.

Now having had the chance to read the whole of the Archbishop of Canterbury's speech in Rome last week I am even more flummoxed. As far as I can make out the whole speech can be paraphrased thus:

1. The ARCIC talks have worked. We've made a lot of progress and we agree on all the basics.
2. We agree on the creed and the main points of the Christian faith.
3. Women's ordination really isn't such a big deal. We got used to it. You could too.
4. The way we get on is that we all agree to differ. We're good with that. It works. You should try it.
5. Sometimes we have to make a compromise and so we have flying bishops and 'impaired communion.' That works too. It's not so bad. You should try it.
6. Things are going fine. We don't know why you guys are still so uptight about women priests and bishops. I'm sure you'll probably have them one day too, and until then, lets have full communion and you can recognize our orders and we can all do things the Anglican way.

What I can't get my head around is that Rowan Williams really seems to believe this. Let's take his points one by one.

1. Has ARCIC been a success? Well it has helped to clear up some misunderstandings and there has been substantial agreement on many things, but the problem is, the 'agreement' is only between the few Anglo Catholic scholars who were involved in ARCIC...

Read Fr. Longenecker's full analysis at Standing on My Head.