Religion

Situation vacant

Martin Sullivan

So Donald Coggan, Archbishop of York, is to be translated to Canterbury. He was strongly tipped and few people were taken by surprise.

How is such an appointment made? The Prime Minister submits a name to the Queen who has the final word. What happens if she Is not happy about her principal

' minister's recommendation? She doubtless will tell him and we can

leave the matter there. The Prime ster has a department, headed bY his Appointments Secretary, to advise him. Soundings are taken inside and outside the church and the first step is the consideration of the needs of the area to be served. Names come much later. Of course the Prime Minister is

approached directly by many

People. Members of Parliament are !nterested. Any citizen anywhere al the kingdom can write to him. The Prime Minister will have his Own ideas and his own list of names. To say that the Prime Minister must be a devout Anglican before he can exercise

,tb.is patronage is an assault upon

'us integrity and his intelligence. The Church of England, which is Still the church of this land by law

established, has to serve a much Wider constituency than those

Who are its regular communicants

or even those who give it allegiance by a vague adherence stated on a census paper. In norninating Archbishop Coggan to ' the See of Canterbury the Prime Minister has acted very conservatively.

What might he have done? He Could have taken a risk and sug gested someone from the ranks,

a,n up-and-coming non-commis!toned officer. As some of these

nave lately been made Bishops, he Tight also have suggested one of 'Rent Instead, he has presented a

Ifl.lan who has held episcopal office or eighteen years and must retire 41together by 1980. ,...What then is left open to him? rst there is now a vacancy at York, and the opportunity to put a

,°unger radical man in that very

;rn,Portant post is now ready made. L,nope the Prime Minister will

Pze this chance. He has done it

refore. Ian Ramsey was his choice Or Durham, and if death had not robbed us of him, he surely now 1;1°111d have gone to Canterbury. Y the end of this year several ,IttiPortant bishoprics will be

• cant. By a wise choice the Prime

minister could shake the Church t°,.f England to her foundations. If "rese appointments are left to the enurch to fill by Synodical election e shall be left with a succession t°Lf safe and sure nonentities. I say tis“at deliberately because this is v" Way of institutions. Majority '°tes are never more than con ste,tvatively radical. "They put out ineir ice like morsels." A bishopric not a reward for good behaviour • for a successful ministry. On 'flat basis Christ Himself would Itot have qualified. We need one or mavericks, intellectually and eastorally equipped. I hope they , ‘tvill not be passed over because bheeY do not conform. This would „ ironical on the part of a Labour "tbe minister. meantime what will Donald C°ggan do? He will steer the ship with a firm hand and he will avoid :ling in troubled waters. He is a wt.'rin, kind, friendly evangelical nose roots are in puritanism. His spil!blic image therefore will be 41Ightly veiled. He will be ,.,I3Proachable and he will make the s'rdi

narY man feel at home. He has a first class mind and the whole church will benefit from his intellectual insight. Coggan needs a much more worldly mate on the bridge with him, someone like Robert Runcie of St Albans. Together they could lead the church to a wider reunion than with the Methodists, encourage the Church of Rome to become more Protestant; guide us surely among the shoals and shifting sands of changing standards; challenge the world in its own court; interpret the faith in intelligible terms and bring the church down to earth. Two men only to do all this? No. But if they moved in this direction, they would not be leading. they would be pushed from behind vigorously and enthusiastically.

Martin Sullivan is Dean of St Paul's