His latest editorial in our church magazine is worth, I beleive quoting in full (I've missed out identifying bits for me not him!). I think that although it is long it is worth quoting as I agree so utterly wholeheartedly with it, and would be interested in your take:
"In our quiet corner of --- we rarely experience the ructions that seem to be churning the national life of our church. We say our prayers, gather for worship, pay attention to one another and seek to do service in our local community. Not very dramatic: not, apparently, terribly engaged with the big issues. But, of course, we do think about them. I, for one, certainly have views. I will not be accepting the Pope's kind offer to go and be part of a sub denomination within the Catholic corral, I will not be seeking alternative Episcopal oversight from the Bishop of New Jersey if the Synod of the Church of England is stupid enough to prevaricate further over women bishops, and I will not be seeking to take legal possession of our church building so I can exercise an aggressive brand of evangelical self-righteousness.
No. Instead, I will invite the parish to Christmas services, encourage more of us to find time for stillness and relection, go on reminding people that God is close to them and loves them...think about whether the church hall is up to the job we want to do with our buildings and hope at the end of it all that the church hasn't blown my pension on a shopping centre in Reykjavik. IN so doing I don't think that I'm being an ostrich. I'm not running away from important issues. I think I'm just getting better at identifying what the important issues are. I'm pretty sure these days that it really doesn't matter whether my vicar is gay or straight: whether my Bishop is Brian or Margaret; whether I think the first chpaters of the gospel of Luke might have been added into the text later than the rest of it.
It does I think matter very much whether or not my vicar is bothered about the people he or she is called to serve. By which, I would generally mean, the poorest in our society, the alienated, Persecuted and marginalised. I do think it matters if my male or female bishop is boring, selfserving or forgetting to be Christ-like. I do think it matters if we forget who Jesus was and what he did. I do think it matters if what we do in the church puts people off or treats them as if they were stupid.
Are the Anglo-Catholic boys club brigade hurt? Well, off you go to papa then. Are the evangelicals cross because we don't use the bible like a rule-book? Well feel free to be cross: it seems to be what you do best. Are the liberals chewing the carpet because the church is so paralysed with fear and anxiety? And, let's face it, we liberals ARE exasperated. Well we should get a sense of perspective and start to play the long game God does.
As another year turns, three cheers for those bits of the church that just get on with it. The big issues that really matter are the homeless down on -- Rd, the trapped old ladies in their flats on -- Street , the children who go home to loveless, cold homes and the struggling families flattened by mortgage payments and uncertain job prospects. Too many of those engaged in 'church-wars' have forgotten who and what they are in the church for. We need to remember. Once we come back to the way Jesus did things then we will have remembered what it means to the the church for England and will be much more likely to be a positive force in the world."