Time for 'Institutional Repentance'?

The deep parody of a church that the C of E has become is quite stark this week.

The backdrop was already provided by the way their senior British numpties had decided they ought to issue a report prepared to broach the idea of apologising for the Iraq war. It was reported that:

'While criticizing Western democracy as "deeply flawed," the bishops appeal for greater "understanding" of what motivates terrorists, and say efforts must be made to address their "long-standing grievances'

For me it doesn't matter that, as some pointed out, their eminences weren't gung-ho against the war; the point is that with IslamoNazis you can't afford to give their propagandist nostrils a sniff.

That's even what their own man in Iraq, Canon White, thought:

'"They've got to take seriously the Anglican churches in these [Muslim] nations," the Church of England Newspaper quoted Canon Andrew White as saying in its weekly edition published on Friday.

"The situation is dangerous on the ground and what is said in the U.K. has a profound effect," he added.'

But did their eminences bother to consult with their man on the ground before they pronounced from comfortable blighty? I doubt it. They thought it was enough to turn down an interview with Al Jazeera.

Canon White was primarily concerned about St. George's church, Baghdad's only Anglican church, which had been shut by Saddam and only reopened in 2003- in other words, because of the war their eminences wanted to apologise for.

Today I came, by chance, across a report which said that the lay leadership of St George's Church in Baghdad is missing, believed murdered by criminals on the Ramadi-Fallujah road. Canon White thought the murderers were likely to have been simple criminals. Who knows? What I do know is that it must have been a lonely road they were on, when the Anglican hierarchy itself was passing by on the other media side.

Nevertheless at least the C o E newspaper was on the ball, taking a completely solid line for once on something with its headline story:

'MUSLIM consultants are queuing up to offer their services free of charge to help Anglican clergy following the London bombings. In what can only be seen as pure acts of altruism, a spate of Muslim doctors have been volunteering their expertise to patients since July 7, at St Luke’s Hospital for Clergy in London, after it was put on alert to help victims of 7/7.'

Nice to see they know how to pay tribute to the poor and downtrodden still.

(highlighting mine- and btw, quite how this muslim activity helps is difficult to fathom; and quite why the hospital is so busy with Anglican clergy is also obscure, being as it is nearly three months since the attack. Spiritual mysteries that are beyond me, no doubt).