Archbishop says "fight sin, not each other" - shock or not

There are times when one could be mistaken for thinking that the Second Coming has occurred, that all sin across this world has been swept aside and all the great problems facing humanity today have been rent asunder. Certainly the way some in the Anglican Communion have obsessed over particular matters in recent years leads one to wonder if they have fallen under this delusion.

So for once I am grateful to the Archbishop of York (normally I am sceptical about whether York should even have an Archbishop) for speaking out on this. (BBC News: Church 'fails' to spread message) Amongst his wise words:

The Church has not been very good at clearly spelling out what the message of Jesus is about...
It is a corporate failure of the Church, not actually doing the ministry of Jesus Christ out in the world.
All of us as members of the body of Christ need to do more.
What we should be about is telling people that God in Jesus has come in a human form, died, rose again and his presence, in terms of the spirit, actually transforms lives.
...
The trouble you have got is that there is a desire for self-fulfilment.
Unfortunately, as we see it in this country, it turns out to turn into self-assertiveness and very little self-examination and we end up with a culture which is very cynical, blaming somebody else, constantly endeavouring to put other people down.

Let's hope that the rest of the Church listens and starts focusing on the real matters, not finding reasons for people to not preach the Word.

The new Archbishop of York

Yesterday I was in York, by coincidence at the same time that a new Archbishop of York was appointed.

As an alumni of a university in Canterbury there's a rabidly loyal part of me that would have preferred the Church to appoint no Archbishop of York at all, but that's just natural friednly rivalry! However the Rt Rev John Sentamu looks like he will be good for the Church in the north.