Unfortunately, he threw caution to the wind when pontificating on political matters that were really not his primary concern, thereby earning derision from the right and applause from the left, and timid to the point of abject poltroonery when it came to standing up for the Christian Gospel.
If, as the remarks below imply, he really did say what he believed, he would have been better suited to the job of Labour Party backbencher than Archbishop of Canterbury.
From here:
In a question and answer session at the end of a densely theological lecture on the nature of the individual, organised by the religion think tank Theos, Dr Williams admitted some of his statements, which have touched controversially on issues from the Iraq war to government economic policies, were risky.
He said: “I just don’t think that it will do to be too cautious in a job like this, you are here, as is true for any archbishop, you are here to try and say what you believe you have been given to say – by which I don’t mean by divine inspiration.
“To try and share a particular picture of what the world is like, what God is like, which of course leads you into sometimes risky and anything but infallible judgments about particular issues of the day.”
The sooner this babbling buffoon is gone the better. Let us all Pray that his successor will do a better job, for God and for the Church.
Whoever it is will be more conservative.
The Bishop of Durham, who is a moderate evangelical, is thought to be the favourite, with John Sentamu, who is much more conservative, and the Bishop of Norwich, who is apparently fairly middle of the road, vying for second.