newsTo lose one archbishop is a misfortune. To lose two would be calamity for a storm-tossed church whose supreme governor is a king
Younger leaders with new ideas bring back people to the church: Tens of thousands of tourists visit Canterbury Cathedral every year when they to pay their respect to St Thomas Becket, murdered after a violent and short-tempered Norman King Henry 11 spoke out of turn to four knights about getting rid of a’ turbulent priest’ in December 1170. Picture shows Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy with Jane Grundy and two visitors from America at the spot where Becket was slaughtered. (Picture : Trevor Grundy)
The Martyrdom Service at Canterbury Cathedral is one of the highlights of the Christian year. But who will lead it on December 29? Justin Welby (Archbishop of Canterbury) is gone. Stephen Cottrell (Archbishop of York) might soon follow. The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, has been accused of failing to remove a priest who was a serial child sexual abuser. The BBC has revealed that, one week after he became Bishop of Chelmsford in 2010, Cottrell was told about a priest in his diocese called David Tudor who had served time in prison for indecently assaulting three young girls. Another former Archbishop of Canterbury (1991-2002) George Carey has resigned as a priest following reports that he failed to properly handle the case of a priest who sexually abused children and who was later given a senior position in the church. TREVOR GRUNDY recommends a couple of bishops who are young enough and dynamic enough to give an ailing, failing church a new life, not just a new PR image.
We all know why Thomas Becket was killed by far from silent knights in Canterbury Cathedral on December 29, 1170.
And if we don’t we should because it is one of the most famous and important stories in European history.
After a series of verbally violent quarrels with his erstwhile chancellor, playmate and drinking pal about the respective powers of church and state, the tipsy monarch was heard to exclaim at one of his courts in France – Who shall rid me of this turbulent priest?
Meaning Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.
The two men argued over tax policy and control over church land. But the biggest conflict was over legal rights of the clergy.
Thomas Becket claimed that if a church official was accused of a crime, only the church had the ability to ut the person on trial. King Henry said that his courts had jurisdiction over anyone accused of a crime in England.
In his play Murder in the Cathedral, T.S. Eliot has one of the knights, William de Traei say “When you come to the point, it does go against the grain to kill an Archbishop, especially when you have been brought up in good Christian tradition.”
The rest is history which tells us that Thomas was soon turned into England’s best- known saint/martyr. Henry 11 became overnight a conscious wrecked penitent (for a few days, anyhow) and four knights into Judas Iscariot-like pariahs and Canterbury into one of Christendom’s most visited pilgrimage destinations.
I lived in Kent for 19 years after leaving Africa in 1996 and attended the Martyr Service at Canterbury Cathedral more times than I can remember.
The service is in Latin and there are readings from T.S. Eliot’s play. A huge congregations, made up mainly of tourists, walk around the magnificent building with lit candles in their hands and prayers most have never said before on their lips as they move towards the place where Thomas was butchered.
Many times I watched Rowan Williams in full clerical drive.
I also saw Justin Welby lead the service.
It is unlikely that an archbishop will lead the service this year.
Personally, I’d sooner anyone led it rather than Stephen Cottrell.
Maybe, someone Jesus talked about in his unforgettable parables. Unknowns from highways and byways instead of the usual suspects.
My suggestion (and sole contribution to everyone having a happy Christmas) is that this year, next year and for ever afterwards lesser- known figures in the established church should take-over and be given the chance to lead a service that used to be part and parcel of worship in England – now a sad and sorry place whose new religion is making money, sky high profits and merciless greed.
Canterbury Cathedral – Mother Church of the Anglican Communion (Picture: Trevor Grundy)
Here goes-
- Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy – The Bishop of Willesden. He is the youngest man to have ever held the post of pasteur at the French Church in Canterbury Cathedral.
Bishop Lusa cut his clerical teeth in England at the French Church in Canterbury Cathedral. In the mid-16th century, many French- speaking Protestant Walloons and Dutch-speaking Flemings came to England to escape the turmoil and religious persecution by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in their Netherlands homeland (Picture: Trevor Grundy)
Born in 1977 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Lusa moved in 1985 with his family to Belgium where his father was a minister in the United Protestant Church.
Lusa as he is today – Bishop of Willesden
In 2000, Lusa took a degree at Licence at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at Brussels University and he qualified as a teacher of the Protestant religion. He is fluent in French and English ad he speaks three African languages.
In Canterbury, he became known as an outgoing, charming and dedicated Christian leader.
He joined the Church of England, A man to watch.
- The Right Rev. Helen-Ann Hartley – The Bishop of Newcastle
This courageous woman called for the resignation of both Welby and Stephen Cottrell (Archbishop of York) and has been hot-lipped and cold-shouldered by her peers.
A lengthy report about her in The Times by Sean O’Neill (Saturday, December 14, 2024) said that although a bishop, she is something of an outsider in the Church of England.
Outsiders are what the Church needs.
The vast majority of British people are outside the established church, coming in for camera-clicking weddings, baptisms and deaths – little more than that.
To get them sitting on pews again, the established church needs leaders not sycophants with their lips sealed.
Born Helen-Ann Francis in Edinburgh. Her parents were Church of Scotland so they were Presbyterian rather than Anglican. The family moved to Sunderland where she attended a Church of England primary school and then a Roman Catholic convent secondary school. She was ordained as a deacon in the Anglican Church in 2005, becoming a priest a year later and moving to New Zealand in 2010 becoming Bishop of Waikato in 2013. She is married.
Since the publication of the Makin Review, Bishop Helen was the only C of E leader to have the courage to lead and denounce Welby and call for his resignation.
Now Helen (pictured above) has made it clear she wants to see the back of Cottrell.
Her courage will isolate her. Her faith will strengthen her.
It will also win her few friends inside the gold-plated Anglican hierarchy.
There are 26 Anglican bishops (they are called Lords Spiritual) in the vastly over-crowded House of Lords with its 805 sitting members. The bishops received £361.00 every time they step over the mat into the House of Lords.
Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley (Newcastle)
Outspoken and courageous at a time of deafening silence among nearly all Church of England clerics
But Bishop Helen’s isolation will not last long.
Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands admire her and the way she has stood alone and said what so few dared say.
Trevor Grundy is the former UK correspondent for the New York-based Religion News Service and Ecumenical News Service in New York and Geneva. He is a Life Member of the National Union of Journalists( NUJ) and the Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA).