JAMES P. writes:

The Daily Mail reports on the “enthronement” of the new Archbishop of Canterbury:

Amid a spectacular celebratory ceremony of African music and dance, former oil executive Justin Welby became the 105th Archbishop to preside over the world’s 77 million Anglicans. [JP: African music and dance has what to do with the Church of England? Is this the Church of Making Africans Happy now?]

And in a moment of history, the Venerable Sheila Watson, archdeacon of Canterbury, took a central role in the proceedings. It is the first time an Archbishop has been enthroned by a woman. [JP: The Church of Making Africans and Women Happy!]

Arriving in the historic building, the Archbishop was greeted by 17-year-old Evangeline Kanagasooriam, a young member of the Anglican Communion. [JP: See first comment.]

…

He warned that modern-day challenges on issues such as the environment, the economy and tackling global poverty could only be faced with ‘extraordinary Christ-liberated courage’. [JP: It takes extraordinary courage not to truckle to Leftist dogma. You have failed.]

…

The new Archbishop has repeatedly expressed opposition to all sex outside of marriage, including between gay couples, but in an interview with BBC News today he said: ‘You see gay relationships that are just stunning in the quality of the relationship.’ [JP: Um… so what? The failure of any number of heterosexual relationships, and the “success” of some homosexual relationships, is totally irrelevant as a social and theological argument for gay marriage.]

…

In another interview with Channel 5 this morning, the Archbishop said he believed one of his successors would eventually be a woman. [JP: She will undoubtedly be an African lesbian if you have any say in the matter.]

 —- Comments —-

Fred Owens writes:

I have seen traditional Catholic imagery combined with native American sculptural motifs in this country, in chapels on Indian reservations. So it can be done, in my view. I have heard church music in Africa, accompanied by drums, and done in a way that fits in nicely with Anglican and Catholic musical customs. It can be done — but this investiture at Canterbury is bizarre. There’s something too startling about this image. It is wrong in a way that I can’t quite describe.

Jeanette V. writes:

The reason that this investiture looks wrong is because it looks and is extremely pagan.

Nick writes:

Seriously, does everything have to be a Benetton ad now? As if we don’t have enough African dance every other damn place, we need it in an Anglican investiture ceremony? Isn’t all of popular culture one gigantic African dance at this point? My mind reels and these ceremonies mean next to nothing to me.

David Flory writes:

What you saw were indigenous artists glorifying God and the Christian narrative using the best they had of their own native skills and traditions. Even though the works or liturgy may be aesthetically unidiomatic, the Christian Truths they proclaim can unify the disparate elements into a fitting worship.

The increasingly bizarre enthronements of Anglican bishops are spectacle, not worship. The organizers of this enthronement are bringing in discordant African spectacle not because they know no other way to worship God, but because they seek to fill and distract themselves from the empty space left by God’s absence.

Laura writes:

The organizers of this enthronement are bringing in discordant African spectacle not because they know no other way to worship God, but because they seek to fill and distract themselves from the empty space left by God’s absence.

Brilliant.

I disagree, however, that this is a fitting form of worship for Africans. Africans are capable of clothing their bodies in reverence. Frenzied dances to primitive drumbeats may convey vitality and joy, they may be exciting and festive, but they don’t draw attention to God. They are the sort of dances once performed before bloody ritual sacrifices. Humanity was liberated from that type of worship a long time ago.

Perfesser Plum writes:

Fred Owens writes, ” It is wrong in a way that I can’t quite describe.”

Let me give it a shot.

There is a juxtaposition of the civilized and the savage. The civilized is in a posture of submission; the savage dominant. The color of the civilized is the white of purity. The color of savage is the red of blood.

And yet we know that the civilized is a wimp, a traitor to his civilization, a fraud, and a charlatan; and begs to be dominated by the savage.

It may be that you can somehow blend (?) tribal ritual and Christian service. But why do it unless you see the service as theater?

Sickening. It reminds me of something from H.P. Lovecraft.

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