London Times Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has revealed how his first encounter with God was not at an Anglican or even a Roman Catholic service but at a Mass of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Dr Williams was only 14 when his local Anglican curate took him along to an Orthodox Mass in Swansea celebrated by a visiting Russian priest.
Although his long journey of faith began at his “mother’s knee”, Dr Williams said the Russian Orthodox Mass was one of only two moments in his teenage years when he met the “living God”.
Dr Williams’s encounter with Orthodoxy came when he was living with his parents in a modest house in Oystermouth on the western edge of the bay in Swansea.
In response to questions at a conference, Dr Williams described how strong the impact of the Mass was on him. “I found myself that evening kneeling at prayer in tears and feeling that I’d been taken somewhere new.
“I had to change, I had to grow, I had to repent. I had to let that reality become more real for me,” he said. The future leader of the Church of England and primus inter pares of the Anglican Communion grew up in a Christian household but started out with his family in the dominant Welsh non-conformist Presbyterian tradition.
When he was 11 the family moved and became members of the Anglican Church in Wales. Welsh Anglicans, particularly in South Wales, have long a tradition of “high” Anglo-Catholic worship.
To a highly intelligent, devout teenage boy, however, even their elaborate incense-perfumed rituals would have seemed tame by comparison with the three-hour Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom as celebrated weekly in Orthodox churches worldwide.
Dr Williams said: “When I came away, I felt I had seen glory and praise for the first time. I felt I had seen and heard people who were behaving as if God were real.”
“I came away with the sense of absolute objectivity and majesty and beauty of God which I have never forgotten. If people worshipped like this, I felt God must be a great deal more real (than) even I have learnt him so far.”
The other epiphany was at the other end of the theological spectrum, in a Baptist church three years later.
He spoke about his teenage encounters with God when he was addressing a meeting in Egypt of bishops and archbishops from the Global South, the grouping of conservative evangelical provinces in Africa, Asia and the West Indies which regards itself as carrying the Orthodox flag in the Anglican Church today.
The meeting was private, but the question and answer session was made public yesterday when Global South organisers posted it on their website.
Dr Williams also described how he had helped to convert three people to Christianity, including Gwyneth Lewis, the national poet of Wales, who he said came knocking on his front door ten years ago after years of involvement in Buddhist meditation. After about two years, she was confirmed as an Anglican, the Archbishop said.
The Orthodox Church in Britain was boosted after 1992 by an influx of former Anglicans opposed to the ordination of women.
The Archbishop also said that Christians needed to be sensitive when communicating with Muslims. “While we cannot accept Islam as the final revelation, it is nonetheless possible that God has given great gifts to individual Muslims and that through their devotion, we may yet learn something of what obedience to God looks like.”
Russian Orthodox
- Part of the family of Orthodox Church that developed from church of Byzantine Empire. Lasting schism with Rome in 1054
- Claims 80 million followers; detractors say closer to 40 million
- One of 14 patriarchates or churches, plus several autonomous churches that honour primacy of Patriarch of Constantinople
Church of England
- Celtic Church gave way to Roman Church at Synod of Whitby in 664. Schism with Rome came in 16th century
- Million regular communicants, 25 million baptised
- One of 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion, all in full or “impaired” communion, acknowledge Archbishop of Canterbury as primus inter pares
It’s hard to believe Williams did his dissertation on Vladimir Lossky. The man and his writings seem to have made just about zero impression on him. Lossky could write a line like “Between the Trinity and Hell there lies no alternative”. Let me know the next time Rowan dares to quote his master’s words in his current employment. That *would* be newsworthy.
It really makes me sad to see so much apostasy in the world today, but that is the last sign just before the rapture of the church. No one has the right to change the word of G-d, its an abomination where fore one is cursed. The bible warns us of those who come in His name but are raving wolves. For one thing Christ is the head of the real Church, He is the only way, the truth and the life, and NO ONE comes to the Father except thru HIM alone. Jesus Christ was the one and ONLY High Priest and will always be. Peter was not a priest, he was a fisherman. The bible warns us of the oter jesus..and many are falling for it all over the world. Matthew warns us, Many, meaning millions will follow it, and the Lord said in that day, they will say Lord , Lord, and He will tell them, depart from me , I never knew you. The true gospel has been thrown out, and now its a unity instead. The churches who unite with the Catholic Church will be here during the tribulation, and but the ral chuch will be gone..and will come back with Christ after the marriage supper of the Lamb, and He will destroy all of the enemies of His and Of His Chosen in Israel, and He will rule from Israel, from Jerusalem forever. The only one who can forgive sin is Jesus. Our last breath here is our first breath where we will spend eternity. G-d tells us the dead is dead. He tells us,, what fellowship have we with the world or those in darkness. I am glad I will not be here, There is only ONE G-d and He is the only one who can forgive. We are to bow to no one but HIM. I hope all will read the bible for themselves, the ony book these days where you will read the truth. He also tells us, no one took His life, He came to lay it down for our sins..In the end, as the church is raptured, His eyes will turn back to Israel, and when He stands on the Mount of Olive, He will bring up the dead, give them a heart of flesh, they will look upon who they pierced and mourn, and every knee will bow and every tonge will confess that he is G-d, and He will say you are my people. And it says, ALL Israel will be saved. Geneses tells us in Chapter 12, if we take Israel lightly, and not bless her, we are cursed. Zechariah 12 :2-3 tells us anyone who burdensthemselves with the land will be cut to pieces..and they are. And when G-d brings all nation to the valley just before He comes back with the church, We all will come back with Him and He will destroy all of Israel’s enemies and judge them. Isreal is SEPERATE from the church, where G-d reveals Himself thru her. Everyone has to decide who’s side you are on..G-d’s and Israels, or Satans and the world. A friend of the world is a enemy of G-d..My prayers are for all to be saved, but everyone has a choice who they will serve..He is the living torah (law) He is the Word of G-d..and He is alive forevermore. go read the Word for yourself, The HOly Spirit promised to lead you into all truth if you asked..and He will, as with Israel …He is NOT a Covenant breaker..as He swore by HIS Name..any more than He will break it with the real Church and our sins were forgiven when we believed and accepted HIM as our Lord, and believed His Word and not of mans. Mans law never saved anyone, and neither will a building they call a church or temple , only the blood of Christ will save anyone who believes. Do it today.
Kim—Which church gave you the Bible? In other words, who decided what books of the Bible were God-inspired and which ones were not? Remember, the Apostles Peter and Paul did not have copies of the New Testament to hand out to the Greeks and Romans when they came to evangelize.
Therefore, brethren, preserve, and grasp the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or by our epistle. [2 Thess. 2:15]