Church 'losing trust' over 'cloak and dagger' Archbishop of Canterbury selection

The committee choosing the next leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans is facing growing discontent from within the Church amid clams that the long-running process has become a “cloak and dagger” procedure.

Calls are mounting for an overhaul of the system and even growing support for future Archbishops in the Church of England to be elected.

It came as even the ancient Coptic Orthodox Church, based in Egypt- which chooses its spiritual leader in a ceremony involving a blindfolded child – announced not only the date for the selection of its new Pope but even the shortlist.

The church, which traces its origins to the 1st Century AD, posted details of the process which will take place next week, on the internet.

By contrast, the Crown Nominations Commission, the 16-member body selecting a successor to Dr Rowan Williams, initiated an effective news blackout last month refusing to say when and if it is meeting or even whether it has made a decision.

The first that the world’s 77 million Anglicans are expected to know of the identity of their new leader will be when the name is announced from Downing Street.

The 16-member body, made up of bishops, priests and lay members has been meeting since the summer to “discern” who should lead the Church of England after Dr Williams steps down at the end of the year.

A decision had been expected earlier this month but following a two day meeting at the end of September the CNC issued a short statement saying only that its “work continues”.

Even the Church’s publicity department was given no explanation although sources have since indicated that the commission had failed to reach an agreement.

The delay that could be a vacancy lasting several weeks before the new Archbishop is enthroned.

The Bishop of Durham, Justin Welby, is widely viewed as the front-runner for the position but the Bishop of Norwich, Graham James and the Bishop of Liverpool James Jones are among other popular candidates.

The renewed secrecy contrasts markedly with the position earlier in the year when the Church launched a national consultation process to canvass views and even posted messages on Twitter urging people to pray for the committee.

One joke circulating on the social networking site earlier this week ridiculed the process with a spoof press release from the Crown Nominations Commission containing two lines of blacked out text.

The Anglican blogger “The Church Mouse” who posted the message said: “It is a ridiculous level of secrecy, you would have thought that a church asking its members to pray about a difficult decision would be an easy thing to do but obviously not.

“It is ridiculous that even the church hierarchy don’t know what is going on … there has been complete lockdown.”

One leading conservative clergyman said: “It has all become cloak and dagger stuff, it doesn’t need to happen his way, elsewhere in the Anglican Communion they elect their bishops and archbishops but we are stuck with these rather outdated standing orders that control the way it is done.

“Everyone is talking about it and the longer it drags on I think the more dissatisfaction there will be and the more sympathy for change but the initiative for change has to come from the Archbishops’ Council.”

Dr Giles Fraser, the former canon chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral, said: “The Coptic Orthodox Church have is a degree of transparency that we can’t manage.

“It is just not a good process – it is not a process that engenders trust, and that is often the case when things are done in smoke filled rooms.

“People need to have a sense about what is going on and they need to have some sort of stake in this.”

“It always feels like an establishment stitch-up even if it isn’t – one of the arguments against election is that it makes it political but what is going on now, there is definitely politicking.”

The Coptic Orthodox Church will select a new spiritual leader to replace Pope Shenouda III, who died in March, on November 4.

Three names, chosen by vote, will be placed in a box on an altar at St Mark's Cathedral in Cairo.

In accordance with tradition one will then be selected by a blindfolded child from the congregation.