His Graceless: Dr. Rowan Williams is no ¨Focus of Unity¨ as he marginalizes, demeans and vetoes qualified candidates from becoming Bishops at The Church of England

The First Amongst Bigots, Archbishop Rowan Williams, Canterbury

¨A meeting of Church of England bishops in York this week has broken up without agreement on whether gay clergy should ever be allowed to be chosen for promotion to bishoprics.

The leadership of the established church remains tied in knots over how far it can comply with the Equality Act in its treatment of gay people. Church lawyers have told the bishops that while they cannot take into account that someone is homosexual in considering them for preferment, they also cannot put forward clergy in active same-sex relationships and, even if they are celibate, must consider whether they can "act as a focus for unity" to their flocks if appointed to a diocese.

Conservative evangelicals remain bitterly opposed to the ordination of gay people, even though many clergy are more or less openly gay, and some are in same-sex partnerships.¨ HERE

Dr Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, and John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, vetoed candidates from becoming bishops of the south London diocese.

¨...Slee described Williams shouting and losing his temper in last year's Southwark meeting, which left several members of the crown nomination committee, responsible for the selection of bishops, in tears.

The Very Reverend Jeffrey John, Dean of St Albans

¨The fraught divisions have been laid bare in the leak of an anguished and devastating memorandum written by the Very Rev Colin Slee, the former dean of Southwark Cathedral, shortly before his death from pancreatic cancer last November. Dr Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, and John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, vetoed candidates from becoming bishops of the south London diocese.

The document reveals shouting matches and arm-twisting by the archbishops to keep out the diocese's preferred choices as bishop: Jeffrey John, the gay dean of St Albans, and Nicholas Holtam, rector of St Martin-in-the-Fields in central London, whose wife was divorced many years ago. Eventually Christopher Chessun, then an assistant bishop, was chosen...¨ please read it all, HERE

Anglican Hero, The Very Reverend Colin Slee, RIP

· Thanks to Episcopal Cafe, sidebar
· Thanks to Wounded Bird, sidebar
· Thanks to Mad Priest, sidebar
· Thanks to Counterlight Peculiars, sidebar
· Thanks to the Very Reverend Colin Slee, RIP
· Thanks to Andrew Brown
· Thanks to The Guardian, United Kingdom
· Thanks to Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA