Archbishop of Canterbury challenges the "self indulgence" of the Church of England

Rowan Williams returns from his transformational visit to central Africa "wanting to be a Christian." From here:

The Archbishop of Canterbury has attacked "self indulgence" within the Church of England as he spoke of how his visit to the eastern Congo left him "wanting to be a Christian".

Dr Rowan Williams said hearing about the "transforming" work of the Anglican Church in the central African country had helped put into perspective "fashionable sneers" faced by the Church of England in this country.

He added that the dedication of Anglican workers in the eastern Congo has put into a "harsh light" the "self indulgence of so much of our church life" which gives people the excuse not to take God seriously.

Dr Williams said church members had risked their lives to rescue young men and women trapped in militias in the forests of eastern Congo.

The experience had highlighted how the church "mattered so intensely", he said, and how if it wasn't for the Church no-one would have cared for these young people.

"It left me wanting to be a Christian," he said, adding jokingly: "Never too late."

"It left me thinking that there is nothing on earth so transforming as a Church in love," he said.

The Archbishop was speaking after returning last month from a nine-day trip to Kenya and the Congo where he visited church projects helping traumatised people rebuild their lives after years of conflict.

In Kenya, he visited Kibera, one of Africa's largest slums, and home to 700,000 people.

Read it all here. 

UPDATE:

It was almost a fierce sense, almost an angry feeling, this knowledge that the Church mattered so intensely. It put into perspective the fashionable sneers that the Church here lives with, the various excuses people make for not taking seriously the idea that God's incalculable love for every person is the only solid foundation for a human dignity that is beyond question. And it put into a harsh light the self-indulgence of so much of our church life which provides people with just the excuses they need for not taking God seriously. It left me wanting to be a Christian. Never too late.

-Rowan Williams, Presidential Address to the Church of England Synod

Here is more from the Archbishop's Presidential Address delivered this morning to the Church of England Synod now underway:

Two weeks ago in Eastern Congo, listening to the experiences of young men and women who had been forced into service with the militias in the civil wars, forced therefore into atrocities done and suffered that don’t bear thinking about, I discovered all over again why the Church mattered.  One after another, they kept saying, ‘The Church didn’t abandon us.’  Members of the Church went into the forests to look for them, risked their lives in making contacts, risked their reputations by bringing them back and working to reintegrate them into local communities.

And I thought, listening to them, ‘If it wasn’t for the Church, no-one, absolutely no-one, would have cared, and they would be lost still.’  It was almost a fierce sense, almost an angry feeling, this knowledge that the Church mattered so intensely.  It put into perspective the fashionable sneers that the Church here lives with, the various excuses people make for not taking seriously the idea that God’s incalculable love for every person is the only solid foundation for a human dignity that is beyond question.  And it put into a harsh light the self-indulgence of so much of our church life which provides people with just the excuses they need for not taking God seriously.  It left me wanting to be a Christian.  It left me thinking that there is nothing on earth so transforming as a Church in love.

Congo isn’t unique.  I’d just had a week in Kenya, where I saw ample evidence of how the Church stays at the forefront both of national reconciliation and of practical regeneration, and how its teaching programmes blend seamlessly together the new and grateful confidence that the gospel brings with the prosaic business of releasing skills and assets in a community so that food security is improved, soil replenished by better, simpler and more responsible farming techniques, co-operative schemes established and so on – always with the Scripture-reading congregation at the centre, learning what the new humanity means in practice, always with an unquestioning hospitality to the entire community.  No, Congo isn’t unique.  And today especially we will have particularly in our hearts another of our sister churches that has once again been the carrier of hope and endurance for a whole people in times of terrible suffering, as the new republic of Southern Sudan begins its independent life.  But what is special in places like Congo and Sudan is a Church with negligible administrative structures and no historic resources working with such prolific energy.  ‘Silver and gold have I none…’ But what they have is, somehow, the strength not to abandon, not to stigmatize, not to reject, but always to seek to rebuild even the most devastated lives.  What they have is the strength not to abandon.  I wish I had the words to express more clearly to you what that strength looks and feels like, but I can only give thanks for seeing it.

Read it all here.