LIVING THROUGH SIX ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY

COMMENTARY

By David Virtue, DD

www.virtueonline.org

October 8, 2025

I have interviewed, listened too, written about and lived through the reign of six Archbishops of Canterbury, starting with Archbishop Donald Coggan in 1974 in western Canada.

Here is what I have learned.

1.     Never trust anyone who desires power and who wants to lord it over you.

2.     Realize that most archbishops’ brains turn to theological mush once they get the job. (The one exception was Rowan Williams who was a liberal catholic to begin with.)

3.     The worst example of all six archbishops was Justin Welby, who quickly abandoned his evangelical faith for a hodgepodge of views and compromise that ended with his downfall.

4.     More often than not the gospel gets lost and most archbishops become ecumenists and managers.

5.     When they talk in interviews they try to placate you with platitudes, prevarications and half-truths.

6.     In interviews they are condescending, irritating and patronizing.

7.     The last thing they are really interested in is telling you the truth on just about anything as it might damage their reputations with their fellow archbishops, patriarchs and possibly a pope. They always have one ear to the ground to make sure they do not offend someone of equal importance.

8.     Placating the left becomes the concern of moderately orthodox archbishops. It never works. The left just wants more and more. Sexuality issues became the marker of 20^th Century orthodoxy and all the archbishops caved. In 1973 Coggan said this: “We must treat them with great sympathy and understanding,” acknowledging the presence of gay clergy in the Church of England. We know how that turned out.

9.     Sooner or later the left wins because an orthodox archbishop doesn’t want to be seen as lacking in compassion, inclusion and diversity. Theology disappears out the window.

10.                        You will never hear “thus saith the lord” on the lips of an archbishop. Way too prophetic and might alienate you from your friends.

11.                        To get along is the highest and noblest value for an archbishop. You will never hear a sermon about sin and salvation, heaven and hell or the last judgement, because it is not nice to tell anyone that rejecting Christ has eternal consequences.

I have lived under, listened too, questioned and interviewed these archbishops with the exception of soon to be Archbishop Sarah Mullally who has not yet begun her reign. For the record I see little point in interviewing her as she has nothing to say worth reporting on or listening too. She has no idea that her views are schismatic to the vast majority of the Global South and that she will probably preside over the dissolution of the church because her views are at odds with 95 percent of the Anglican Communion.

Here is the general theological outlook of the Anglican communion’s archbishops.

Donald Coggan 1974–1980 Evangelical

Robert Runcie 1980–1991 Liberal Catholic

George Carey 1991–2002 Evangelical Conservative

Rowan Williams 2002–2012 Liberal Catholic

Justin Welby 2013–2025 Open Evangelical

Sarah Mullally 2025– Liberal Progressive

Lord willing, I may live long enough to see a formal schism in the Anglican Communion. Who knows. I do know that at the end truth will triumph because the stones would cry out.

END