A good man in a naughty world

All Archbishops of Canterbury fail. Dr Carey quotes Archbishop Cosmo Gordon Lang’s famous dictum: ‘The post is impossible for one man to do, but only one man can do it.’ It is not simply that there is too much for one man to do. The real problem is that the internal contradictions of Anglicanism have become impossible to resolve. What do Anglicans believe? Archbishop Lang could have referred an enquirer to the catechism of the Book of Common Prayer. But that shiny little black volume is no longer to be found in most churches today, and the possibilities for schism and chaos have multiplied.

Poor Dr Carey. He cannot be accused of ever having wanted this poisoned chalice; his appointment was as much a shock to him as it was to everyone else. That night, he confided his feelings to his diary: ‘Had a terrible night and simply could not sleep. Fear was present. Will I be ridiculed and mocked for my lack of experience? . . . What an awesome responsibility.’

All too soon, his fears were to be realised; ridiculed and mocked he often was, for reasons which do not necessarily reflect discredit on him. It is difficult at times not to read his memoirs as the confessions of an innocent abroad. His strong and simple faith shines through this narrative of a good man facing an often complex and menacing reality; but the effect, it has to be said, is often not a little absurd. It is surely hard to read with a straight face Dr Carey’s distinctly Adrian Moleish account of the invasion of his pulpit in Canterbury cathedral by Peter Tatchell and a group of gay activists:

I tried to regain control of the situation by appealing to the better side of the interlopers, but this fell on deaf ears.