George Carey
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- For the former NHL player, please see George Carey (NHL)
Early life
George Carey was born in the East End of London. He failed his eleven plus and attended Bifrons Secondary Modern School, Barking, before leaving at the age of 15. He worked for the London Electricity Board as an office boy, before doing his National Service at 18 in the RAF, during which he served in Iraq.Conversion and ordination
He became a Christian at 17, when he attended church with his friends: "I had a conversion experience which was very real... There were no blinding lights, simply a quiet conviction I had found something," he later said.During his National Service he decided to seek ordination and after his discharge he studied intensely, gaining 6 O-levels and 3 A-levels in 15 months, before attending King's College London. He graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree and was ordained.
Offices
He was a curate at St Mary's Islington, worked at Oak Hill Theological College and St John's Nottingham and became vicar of St Nicholas' Church, Durham in 1975. Within two years he had trebled the congregation. He later wrote a book on his experiences there called "The Church in the Market Place".In 1982 he was appointed as Principal of Trinity College, Bristol, and was appointed as Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1988.
He was enthroned as the 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury on 19 April 1991. He retired as Archibishop on 31 October 2002.
Theological and social positions
George Carey is a member of the Evangelical (Low church) section of the Church of England. He strongly supported the ordination of women, even denouncing opponents of it as heretics.
He opposed homosexual relationships amongst members of the clergy, although he admits having consecrated two bishops whom he suspected of having same-sex partners. He presided over the Lambeth Conference of 1998 and actively supported the resolution at that Conference which uncompromisingly rejected all homosexual practice as "incompatible with scripture". Carey was criticised for his lack of neutrality on the issue by those attempting to rescue a compromise position which had been presented to the conference by a working group of Bishops on human sexuality. George Carey also voted against an express condemnation (which had been present in the original form of the resolution) of homophobia. The resolution as a whole was described by one of Carey's fellow primates, Bishop Holloway of Scotland, as a betrayal. George Carey said: "If this conference is known by what we have said about homosexuality, then we will have failed." However, the resolution was the beginning of an escalating crisis of unity within the Anglican Communion around the question of human sexuality which continues. This resolution is at the heart of current divisions within the Anglican Communion on the issue. Carey was also one of those who expressly refused to sign the [Cambridge Accord], which sought to reach consensus on at least the human rights of homosexuals.
George Carey was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to publish his memoirs, entitled "Know the Truth". These talk about his time as Archbishop, and include details about the British royal family, including his private meetings with Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. In it he called for them to marry. These revelations were widely criticised as a breach of confidence.
Public statements since retirement
As Archbishop, he was active in inter-faith work, and worked for better relations with Muslims, calling for "deeper dialogue" between the two faiths. However, on 25 March 2004, after his retirement, he made a strongly worded speech attacking lack of democracy and innovation in Muslim countries. He alleged a lack of critical scholarship toward the Qur'an and said that moderate Muslims should "resist strongly" the take-over of Islam by extremists. He also criticised the majority of Muslims, who do not support extremists, for not denouncing them. This speech was widely interpreted as an outspoken attack on Islam. Carey defended it saying "Those who took the trouble to read my lecture will have noted that I was as critical of the West, of Christianity and, for that matter, also sharply critical of Israel's policy with respect to Palestine."In February 2006, he attracted more controversy by declaring in a letter to the Times that a General Synod motion supported by his successor in favour of disinvestment in a company active in the occupied territories of Israel made him ashamed to be an Anglican.
Since his retirement, he has supported same-sex partnerships in secular law but continues to oppose gay marriage and the blessing of gay partnerships in church. In March 2006, he personally endorsed "with enthusiasm" a questionnaire to American bishops from what he described as "Lay Episcopalians who wish their Church to remain faithful to Orthodox Christianity" in relation to the controversy in that church over the ordination of an openly gay bishop. For this, he was chided by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the USA Frank Griswold "for allowing himself to be used by others whose political ambition is to sow division".
Carey initially said he "was not too upset" by the controversy but, in April 2006, when criticism of his post-retirement activism and embroilment in controversy on a number of fronts had been voiced in an open letter (reported in the [Sunday Times on 16 April 2006], he issued a public statement [(available here)] complaining that such comments were "mischievous and damaging to the Anglican Communion". In an interview for the BBC on 23 April 2006, he said "I think this is a mischievous letter from Australia and I hope the authors will reflect and repent".
In May 2006, he made a speech to the Virginia Theological Seminary, subsequently published on his personal website, which said "When I left office at the end of 2002 I felt the Anglican Communion was in good heart" but that, as a result of subsequent events "it is difficult to say in what way we are now a Communion." This was reported on 11 June 2006 in the Sunday Telegraph ("Church has falled apart since I was in charge, says Carey") and on 12 June 2006 in the Guardian and the Independent as an attack on his successor. An email from Lord Carey on the day of publication was circulated in which he strongly denied this and said "I am hopping mad and will want a retraction from the [Sunday Telegraph], otherwise I will lodge a complaint."
Select bibliography
- 1984: The Church in the Marketplace - details how he transformed a parish church in Durham.
- 1986: The Gate of Glory - a study of Christian doctrines of the crucifixion.
- 1989: The Great God Robbery
- 1998: Canterbury Letters to the Future
- 2004: Know the Truth - autobiography
External links
- [Archive of Archbishop Carey]
- [Official website of Lord Carey] set up after his retirement
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