The Church of England’s power struggle

Blimey, who’s going to resign next? Chartres? Williams? The Queen? God maybe? What’s going on here?

A high-profile branch of the C of E has been put in the media spotlight in a way that it cannot cope with. It is being cast as stooge of the System, bankers’ poodle. It wants desperately to communicate its sympathy with liberal opinion, with the concerns of the protesters. It feels that it is being cornered into looking like their antagonist, even like some sort of tyrannical regime, hiding in a big domed palace. No C of E cleric wants to be the focus of this. Giles Fraser sensed that the episode might result in violent scenes — such scenes must not be risked at any cost, he implied; it would be too disastrous for the Church. This increased the focus on the Dean.