It’s worth resurrecting a decade-old headline — and the accompanying picture! — to reflect on the power of headlines and images. In 2002, when then incoming Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was inducted into the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards during the Eisteddfod, an annual festival of Welsh culture, it kicked up some predictable controversy (or kun-TRAH-ver-see, as the Brits say it). It also produced a fine picture that says at least as much — though what it does say is also debatable. Here’s the whole article:
Incoming Archbishop of Canterbury becomes a druid
Monday 5 August 2002An ancient early morning ceremony yesterday saw the incoming Archbishop of Canterbury stepping into a circle of Pembrokeshire stones and into a controversy. Rowan Williams donned a long white robe, stood inside the sacred circle in a mist shrouded field in Wales, and became a druid.
The Archbishop of Wales was one of 50 people to be inducted into the Gorsedd of Bards during the service at the National Eisteddfod, a celebration of Welsh culture this week at St David’s, Pembrokeshire.
The Gorsedd comprises Welsh-speaking poets, writers, musicians, artists and others who have made a distinguished contribution to Welsh language and culture. But the ceremony was seen by some as too close to paganism for comfort.
The Rev Angus Macleay, of the evangelical group Reform, said: “Even if to Welsh speakers it is recognised as purely a cultural thing, the appearance of it looks very pagan. You have folks calling themselves druids, dressed in white and going into a stone circle, reciting prayers which don’t mention Jesus Christ.”
Dr Williams, who takes up his post in November, hit back at suggestions that the honour was linked to paganism. It was “one of the greatest honours which Wales can bestow on her citizens”, he said. “Some people have reached the wrong conclusion about the ceremony. If people had actually looked at the words of the hymns and text used they would have seen a very Christian service.”
The Archbishop is stepping down this year, having presided over a decade’s worth of theological contentiousness about marrying and ordaining homosexuals that is splitting his church. Other kerfluffles (I use the word advisedly: in a century historians will no doubt smile and shake their heads at what is controversial now) include his positions on Sharia law, the hijab, Freemasonry, and creationism. He is taking on what should be (almost anything would be!) a less dramatic and public role: Master of Magdalene College at Cambridge University. Think Professor Minerva McGonagall as head of house of Gryffindor at Hogwarts, though Gryffindor was one of four dorms or “houses,” rather than an entire college. Still …
I suspect Williams enjoyed his secular Druid experience more than some of his official duties as Archbishop. I hope he reflects on it from time to time, as Druidry grows richer and more widely known.
[Updated 7/19/12]
/|\ /|\ /|\
A Druid Way 