Buxton Vicarage, July 2002

I find myself, for some inexplicable reason, thinking of some of those nonsensical verses written by Lewis Carroll rather more than a hundred years ago. That incredibly wacky conversation between the Walrus and the Carpenter as they wander along the beach consuming Oysters for example:

'The time has come,' the Walrus said
'to talk of many things:
Of shoes - and ships - and sealing wax -
of cabbages and kings -
And why the sea is boiling hot -
and whether pigs have wings.'

Its all total nonsense, of course, and quite meaningless, but there is a certain flow to it that makes you feel that you are reading something really quite meaningful.

The world around us can be a bit like that sometimes - really quite meaningful until we have the honesty to stop and look hard at what is being said to us. Then the uncomfortable suspicion that we are being manipulated, sometimes heavily misinformed and sometimes given total nonsense comes up and hits us. I read, largely for sentimental family reasons, one of the best known of the daily 'broadsheet' newspapers and yet even there I am often brought up short by the total inaccuracy of what I see reported.

Obviously this will be in areas where I am myself well informed - agriculture and religion - but I am then left wondering about the accuracy of reporting in areas where I am not well informed. It can be quite alarming!

Some of these inaccuracies can be quite trivial. The press's determination to refer to all priests as 'Vicars' - some of us are, but these days most of us are not - is an example of that. Technically wrong and lazy, but not all that important. On the other hand, a recent report in 'my' paper on some matter to do with the Church of England finished by saying that women priests doing the same work as their male colleagues are being 'paid' less - which is quite wrong and very inflammatory.

This same paper has taken a great pride recently in 'breaking the shroud of secrecy' surrounding the appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury and announcing what it claims is quite certainly the name of the person concerned. If it really is Archbishop Rowan Williams then my heart goes out to him - what if he wants to decline the offer, as he well might? How can he now do so with dignity?

This leads me through to what I think I really do want to say. Why all this pressure to make 'open and public' an appointment process which is really much better dealt with quietly and through the combined wisdom and prayer of those called to the task by God? To view the Church of England as just another commercial or political institution is to miss the point entirely. The Church is not a democracy. Those of us 'employed' by it are not - or should not be - there to fulfil a personal ambition, but as a response to God's call to us to serve Him as He thinks best. This applies just as much to an archbishop as it does to a parish priest or a church officer.

The suggestion that people should propose themselves as candidates for senior church posts runs directly contrary to this principle. In any case, if there is anyone out there who really wants to be Archbishop of Canterbury then I would humbly suggest that he is totally unsuitable for the job!
C. S. Lewis, when writing of his conversion to Christianity, spoke of being 'dragged kicking and screaming to the altar'. I can't quite relate to that, but even eleven years on I still often find myself quite astonished at being where I am and doing what I am doing. I hope very much that our new archbishop, whoever he may be, will find himself in post as a response to a calling from Christ, the Head of our church, and not through some sort of back room politicking - and will be similarly astonished.

This is the last edition of The Marlpit to be published before many of you go away on holiday. I wish you all a happy, relaxing and renewing time and safety in your travels. For those of you who are not going away I nevertheless hope that there will be time to rest a bit and relax. Wherever you are, may God be with you.

Chris Walter