Writing in the New Statesman our Episcopal Visitor, Lord Williams of Oystermouth says ” I always knew I should be a Priest. But why not do the thing properly and be a monk?”
He continued: “In retrospect, I think that what I was wrestling with was a set of confused feelings about commitment – knowing that at some level I found commitment terrifying, and seeing the monastic life as a radical solution to this: get it all over with, in one big act of self-denial. It had a complicated effect – as you might imagine – on other relationships. Fortunately, the people whose advice I most respected didn’t push or pressure at all; they helped me gradually to get all this in better perspective, to accept that whatever a good motivation for monastic life might be, it should include an acceptance of human need and fallibility.”
Bishop Rowan who will next month publish a book on the Rule of St Benedict concludes the article:
“Being a priest and a writer and a teacher of sorts has always been, for me, grounded in those prospects not followed.”
