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Everyone has heard silly stories, some surely apocryphal, of drivers being led astray by their sat navs, with varying results from getting stuck in narrow country lanes to driving off piers into the sea. In my own experience, friends staying with us in Hampshire from the Middle East needed to take their son to Leicester to put him into university. I insisted on map-reading for the outward journey, which they thought quaintly stubborn; the journey took one and a half hours. We would return, they announced, via sat nav (or GPS, to our cousins across the pond). As they had programmed ‘using motorways’, the sat nav decided to return via the M1 and the journey took nearly three hours.
I am wondering whether ++Rowan (and his advisors) are similarly fatally fixated on their sat nav. One can imagine the archbishop settling down in 2008 to plan the march towards the worldwide adoption of the Covenant. He would have punched all data then available into the massive central processing unit that is undoubtedly his brain, hit the enter button and then produced the route he intended to take to his simplistic panacea for all the ills that beset the Anglican Communion.
He does not appear to have noticed that the parameters have changed. Roadworks have started along the way, there have been diversions, and some roads have been turned into cul-de-sacs or, as the French really say, ‘voies sans issue’. More seriously, some of his original data was also corrupted.
And yet, like Mr Magoo, he carries on regardless. Helpless onlookers do their best to prevent him from falling into the ditch, but he marches forward saying ‘I can do no other’.
Archbishop Rowan, this is a petition.
Please, please stop, look and listen. Remember the law of unintended consequences. Only proceed further with great caution!
We echo the heartfelt words of Oliver Cromwell to the 1650 general assembly of the Church of Scotland and “beseech you in the bowels of Christ [to] think it possible you may be mistaken.”
………………………………………….
Postscript: If you enjoyed this, you may also like the story on Lay Anglicana, which was hijacked by Archbishop Rowan on page 2
oooo – you have started blogging – fantastic!
Thank-you for the encouragement Lesley – and thank-you for the re-tweet (made my day!)
It was fine until you referred to Oliver Cromwell, whose quoted question should have been thrown right back at him!
If Rowan uses his satnav the way I did the first time I had one, he has programmed it to go to its start point, rather then its destination.
Hence screaming voices on the main routes telling him to MAKE U Turns in the middle of the M25.
Since I've got the T Shirt, perhaps I will send one to Lambeth Palace. 🙂
I confess I was at first confused by "satnav" – must be short for satellite navigation" – or what we in the States more commonly refer to as GPS system – global positioning system. The particular brand I own is a "Garmin", so I call my GPS "Mrs. Garmin".
I have my GPS set to the voice of a British woman, so when I've taken a wrong turn, someone sounding a bit like Margaret Thatcher will sternly say, "Re-calculating".
I suspect +++Himself needs a "Mrs. Garmin" for clearly he has taken more than his share of wrong turns.
Oh dear, Hugh, well you don't have to be a Cromwellian (I'm a Cavalier myself) to think it's a pretty good line in exasperated, at-the-end-of-my-tether expostulation! (Please forgive…)
And UKViewer – I like it (does anyone know how to Photoshop a picture of ++Rowan wearing the T-shirt?)
Elizabeth, sorry about the tomato/tomahto misunderstanding ('cell phone' and 'mobile' is another one). No wonder we can't sign the same Covenant!
¨And yet, like Mr Magoo, he carries on regardless¨ by George I think you´ve got IT!
Thanks for clearing that up (down, sideways),
Leonardo
Guatemala
Thank-you Leonardo: desperate times call for desperate measures!
As I've said elsewhere, Rowan doesn't drive!
That explains a lot – he doesn't drive and he doesn't navigate. Like the Grand Old Duke of York, perhaps he just marches his men to the top of the hill and then marches them down again? We must pray that he does.
I am a map person too. GPS or satnav will end you up in somebody's cow pasture here in Texas. But that is about where the Covenant is ending up too–in some weedy spot far away from the people and oblivious of what is happening in the world.
Thank-you Muthah+ for tracking us down in this obscure corner of the blogsphere. If only we could re-wind to the beginning of the millennium – at this point it is hard to get back on track and the old joke about directions from an Irishman ('if I were trying to get to where you are going, I wouldn't be starting from here') seems too true to be funny.
I've always thought sat navs a good option when you travel on your own or don't trust your co-drivers, as it saves you trying to negotiate tricky inner city junctions while attempting to read a map.
But when you have co-drivers or friendly passengers, a collaborative attempt and a good map are what will get you there without fail.
Wonderful start on the blogsphere. Welcome!
& I'm following you now on twitter also (@liturgy)
You might also be interested in one news & one comment:
http://www.liturgy.co.nz/blog/maori-vote-against-covenant/5605
http://www.liturgy.co.nz/blog/anglican-covenant-3/5423
I love you sat nav point.
Blessings
Bosco
http://www.liturgy.co.nz
Thank-you, Erika. If it seems obvious to us that collaborative effort and a good map is the best means of reaching a goal, I wonder why it isn't obvious to everyone?
Thank-you Bosco, both for your blessings and for your kind welcoming comment.
Now it's my turn to explain that your piece on the Maori vote is already linked on the Lay Anglicana discussion forum:
http://www.layanglicana.org/showthread.php?99-The-Anglican-Covenant/page6.
And I am the 'Laura Sykes' who complained at 9.25 am in the comments that your other piece sent shivers down my spine!
But it has been good to go back and re-read both pieces. I am particularly interested in your point that even (an unlikely) 90% in favour would split the Communion.
Thanks, Laura, for clarifying the connection.
I wonder about the possibilities that open up if the CofE rejects the Covenant. Suddenly the ABC cannot call Lambeth? etc. etc. etc.
Why is the CofE satisfied to hand over its rangatiratanga on only a majority vote? Surely it should be 2/3 or 3/4 in each house? Surely, as the established church, shouldn't your parliament have a say?
Blessings
Bosco
'Surely, as the established church, shouldn't your parliament have a say?'
Yes, quite! I have blogged on this (see http://layanglicana.blogspot.com/2011/04/does-anglican-covenant-threaten.html)and bleated on every forum. I am beginning to feel like the child who pointed out: 'the king is in the altogether'
and I am wondering why people are not focussing on this more.
I think part of the reason is that people like me who are against the covenant would also like the church to disestablish, so do not want to use this argument.
As someone else said, Of Course I Could Be Wrong.
"I wonder about the possibilities that open up if the CofE rejects the Covenant. Suddenly the ABC cannot call Lambeth? etc. etc. etc."
That is precisely why the Covenant will be pushed through here, whether people like it or not. It is absolutely inconceivable that the Archbishop of Canterbury should come from a church that relegates itself to second tier in the Communion.
It is one of the huge problems of the ABC being the head of the CoE at the same time.
If our ABCs were drawn in rotation from all the provinces this conflict of interest would be far less serious.
Oh, Erika, now it's your turn to send shivers down my spine. Do you really think there is no hope of stopping the Covenant juggernaut? What an appalling prospect!
I saw Lesley's story about the conversation you and she had about the problem of the dual role of the ABC; I suspect it is one of the many things which didn't matter too much until now because it made no practical difference. Once you start to codify everything in a legal framework complete with sanctions, the internal contradictions become glaringly obvious.