Skeptical Bishop Draws a Mild Rebuke at Anglican Synod

The Archbishop of Canterbury, faced with widespread discontent over a bishop who publicly questions some of the Anglican Church’s central beliefs, said Wednesday that matters of faith must be handled with “care and reverence.”

In what appeared to be a mild rebuke for Bishop David Jenkins of Durham--who has openly questioned teachings on the Resurrection, the Virgin Birth and biblical miracles--Archbishop Robert A.K. Runcie warned: “A bishop’s consecration imposes a certain conservative responsibility.”

Runcie, the informal spiritual head of the world’s 65 million Anglicans, told the Church of England’s governing synod that bishops must steer a course between “mindless dogmatism” and “rootless individualism.”

“Clearly such a path is fraught with difficulty and danger and it’s a wise bishop who treads with care and reverence,” Runcie said.

The archbishop made it clear he does not want to stifle intellectual debate in the church or lessen the church’s tolerance.

“The church is not like a schoolteacher who must expel a boy from school lest he influence the others to wickedness,” he said.

“We need shepherds not only to repel wolves from the fold but also to lead the flock to new and more fertile pastures.”

The Jenkins issue has caused a wide split in the synod, and the church’s more than 50 bishops were asked to reflect seriously on the debate.

Clergyman David Holloway said the doubts expressed by Jenkins were “a cancer in the church” that “if not eradicated . . . brings death.”

And a lay representative, politician Frank Field, said it was “arrogance--original sin--to say we can turn our backs on 2,000 years of history and say that everything that people have believed counts for nothing.”

Another speaker said churchgoers were puzzled and hurt by bishops who “recited the creed while crossing their fingers behind their backs.”

Jenkins was consecrated bishop last July without retracting any of his doubts, which he claims have been brought up for the past 100 years and are widely shared in theological colleges.