This is not a post about candidates: Lay Anglicana has a mental short list but does not wish to jinx their chances by mentioning their names. This is a post about the ‘person specification’ of the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

The present archbishop, Rowan Williams, is very clear on the qualities needed: “the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros.” We can perhaps all agree that the constitution of an ox is needed to fulfil the present job specification, which we examined earlier and considered how it might be simplified in order to lighten the burden on the incumbent. If the job description cannot be fulfilled by one human being, then the appointee is being set up for failure, an appalling prospect both for the individual concerned but also for the Church of England. I suggest the first task for Archbishop Rowan’s successor is the rationalisation of his ‘To Do’ list.

As you will know, the Crown Nominations Commission, responsible for choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury, is asking for submissions from all and sundry (my paraphrase, but it is clear that the laity are included). Anyone who does not respond to this invitation loses, I suggest, the right to criticise subsequently. I urge you to submit your own thoughts to the CNC but, if you would rather, Lay Anglicana is proposing to put in a joint submission in the next few days (we only have until the end of the month).

I suggested in a previous post that the CNC should begin by asking candidates this question (Who is the Church of England for?) before proceeding any further with the interview. As well as their answers, the reactions of the candidates may reveal more than they intend. For me the answer is that the Church exists in order to encourage and enable people to worship God. At times the Church appears to believe (like many an ossified bureaucracy before it) that the Church exists in order to serve itself.

In no particular order – this can be sorted out at the drafting stage – I suggest the following qualities are needed:

• NOT the skin of a rhinoceros. The problem with the present regime is that, feeling beleaguered , it has responded by battening down the hatches and trying to ride out the storm by ignoring it. Whatever happened to Indaba at Lambeth Palace? I suggest a series of ‘vicarage tea parties’ at which problems could be aired and discussed – ad infinitum. The right response from the occupant of Lambeth is a Clintonesque ‘I hear you and I feel your pain’, while repeating the provisions of the Chicago Lambeth Quadrilateral to himself daily, along with his morning prayers: the different wings of the Church of England, like the Anglican Communion, cannot be magically united – the aim must be peaceful (and if possible loving) co-existence.
• NOT alternating Anglo-Catholic or Evangelical. We need a candidate who embraces both (they do exist).
• NOT a bishop who is personally wedded to the Anglican Covenant. Since the Covenant has been defeated in diocesan synods, we need someone who has not spoken resolutely in favour of the Covenant.
• NOT a bishop who is resolutely against the raising of women to the episcopate (which was overwhelmingly supported in diocesan synods)