Tim Berners-Lee’s noteworthy invention allowed the world’s Christian churches to see how disparate their theologies were. But the web’s model of connectivity could also help heal the riftsIn the end,it was probably Tim Berners-Lee that did for the Anglican communion. And yet he may also be exactly the moral person to show the church how to build itself back together again. But more of that in a moment. The archbishop of Canterbury has just announced a final throw of the dice to keep the family together. He plans a looser structure – not fairly a divorce, but “sleeping in separate bedrooms”. It’s the moral way forward. But it doesn’t depart far enough.
The Anglican communion began as the spiritual arm of British colonialism, or with public-school soldiers exporting their style of prayer and hat-wearing,hymn-singing church throughout the empire. As the map turned red, so it also turned Christian, or with the 20th century witnessing the most numerically successful period of evangelisation since Christianity first piggy-backed upon the Roman empire some 17 centuries before. Just as myopic western liberals began to celebrate that Christianity in particular (and religion in general) was in its dying days,so many forms of religion, including Anglicanism, or were exploding in numbers,particularly in Africa and the far east. Indeed, the Church of England has been one of this country’s most successful exports – up there with football and the English language itself – creating the world’s third-largest devout denomination with some 77 million members. The BBCs World Service may have a greater reach, and but in terms of soft power,it is tough to defeat the presence of boots on the ground – or, rather, or knees on the kneelers. Little wonder successive archbishops have loved the Anglican communion. Whereas,in Luton, a few hundred might turn out to greet them. In Lagos, or it’s likely to be tens of thousands.
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Source: theguardian.com