• Tale of two churches: Pope appointed swiftly, but Anglicans take their time

    Philip Toscano / AFP - Getty Images

    Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, second left, during his enthronement service at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, England, on March 21, 2013.

    By Sohel Uddin, Producer, NBC News

    News analysis

    Two major churches installed new leaders this week. But while it took the Roman Catholic Church just a month to get a new pope, more than a year passed before the Anglicans inaugurated the new Archbishop of Canterbury.

    Catholics saw the new Pope Francis inaugurated at the Vatican on Tuesday — after Pope Benedict’s shock resignation on Feb. 11 — and two days later Justin Welby was installed as leader of some 85 million members of the Anglican Communion.

    The Roman Catholic Church got together all 115 cardinal electors, set the date for the conclave and, after a couple of days of deliberation, a leader for the church’s 1.2 billion members emerged. He is appointed for life and can invoke papal infallibility.


    "It’s a very secretive process, a lot of people are involved, but it doesn’t usually take … long," papal historian Michael Walsh said, noting conclaves in the 20th century took no longer than three or four days.

    Since the resignation of the last Anglican leader, it took nine months to find a new one and over a year to reach the day of Welby’s inauguration.

    The procedure in choosing an Anglican leader — who presides over royal births, marriages, deaths and coronations and will most likely christen Prince William and Kate's baby this summer — is complicated, even though his powers over Anglicans are more limited than those of the pope over Catholics and he must retire by the age of 70.

    Their equivalent of the papal conclave is the Crown Nominations Commission consisting of 16 people, who narrow down the list of candidates to two people.

    Those names are then submitted to the British prime minister who chooses one and submits it to the monarch for the final approval.

    While the decision to elect a pope rests solely with members of the Catholic Church, the selection of an Archbishop of Canterbury is a combined decision of the clergy and the British state.

    The balance between to the two weighs heavily on the side of the state, since it chooses the chairperson of the nomination commission.

    "I don’t think it is a lengthy procedure — after all, he is being elected for three roles: the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, leader of the Church of England and Bishop of Canterbury," Jan Butter, director of communications for the Anglican Communion, said.

    He explained that the commission's task was complicated by having to choose from candidates who are not present in the discussions, unlike the conclave where every cardinal involved is a potential candidate.

    "When a huge corporation hunts for a CEO, they take the right amount of time to make sure the right choice has been made," Butter emphasized "and that is what the CNC has done this time and always."

    The duration does not seem to bother some Anglicans.

    "There is less rush and more excitement," Tarsila Burity, a member of the church from Brazil currently attending college in the UK said, "knowing that the decision could affect so many people it’s worth the wait."

    So much effort to award a significant ecclesiastical position, even though authority does not carry infallibility and the post is not for life.

    Related:

    New leader of world's Anglicans enthroned by female cleric

    At inauguration, Pope Francis appeals for protection of poor, environment

    'Let's start over': Muslims hope Pope Francis will salvage relations

  • New leader of world's Anglicans enthroned by female cleric

    The Archbishop of Canterbury has been formally installed as the head of the Church of England. There was applause for Justin Welby in the Cathedral after he had been sworn in. ITV's Penny Marshall reports.

    By Shadia Nasralla, Reuters

    CANTERBURY, England — The new spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans was enthroned by a female cleric on Thursday, taking the helm at a time when the troubled church risks tearing itself apart over gay marriage and women bishops.

    In a colorful ceremony featuring African dancers, Punjabi music and Anglican hymns, Justin Welby, 57, officially became the 105th archbishop of Canterbury under the gothic arches of Britain's 900-year-old Canterbury Cathedral.



    The ceremony took place in front of a congregation that included heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, Prime Minister David Cameron and other establishment figures.

    For the first time in the church's history, the priest who placed him on the diocesan throne in Canterbury — the mother church of the Church of England and of the Anglican Communion — was a woman, Archdeacon of Canterbury Sheila Watson.

    Another priest then installed Welby in the chair of St. Augustine, marking his inauguration as Primate of All England and spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

    Welby now faces a tough balancing act to keep the 80 million-strong Anglican Communion together.

    He is against gay marriage, but favors the ordination of women as bishops.

    Softer stance on gay marriage
    The archbishop finds himself in the crossfire between liberal clerics in the United States and Britain who are at odds with conservatives in Africa and elsewhere over those issues, and his handling of the dispute is set to dominate his tenure.

    Just hours before the ceremony, Welby spoke out publicly about gay marriage, offering a softer stance on the issue.

    "You see gay relationships that are just stunning in the quality of the relationship," he told the BBC, while stressing he had no doubts over the church's policy on same-sex relationships.

    "The Church of England holds very firmly, and continues to hold to the view, that marriage is a lifelong union of one man to one woman."

    Gareth Fuller / PA Pool via AP

    Justin Welby, center, was installed as the new Archbishop of Canterbury Thursday, becoming head of the world's 80 million members of the Anglican Communion.

    Senior African Anglican leaders have lined up to denounce a decision to allow celibate gay bishops, saying it would only widen the rift in the church.

    "It's true that not all the African bishops, but quite a number of African bishops are strongly opposed to the way you understand sexuality in the West," Solomon Tilewa Johnson, archbishop and primate of the West Africa section of the Anglican Communion, told Reuters on the eve of the ceremony.

    Pope Francis, who was formally installed as head of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics about a week ago, sent Welby a message from the Vatican to congratulate him.

    "Please be assured of my prayers as you take up your new responsibilities, and I ask you to pray for me as I respond to the new call that the Lord has addressed to me," he said. "I look forward to meeting you in the near future, and to continuing the warm fraternal relations that our predecessors enjoyed."

    Welby is seen as a pragmatic trouble-shooter, hardened by years of work as a crisis negotiator in Africa among separatists in the swamps of the Niger Delta and Islamists in northern Nigeria.

    Born in London in 1956, he was educated at the private Eton College, and went on to study history and law at Cambridge University. His father's family were German-Jewish immigrants who fled persecution to England in the 19th century.

    His life changed dramatically in 1983 when his daughter was killed in a car accident, an event he described as a "dark time" that brought him and his wife closer to God. 

    Related:

    'Let's start over': Muslims hope Pope Francis will salvage relations

    Ex-oil man and son of bootlegger to be next Anglican leader

    Church of England votes against allowing women bishops

    Is liberal Christianity signing its own death warrant?

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Vote rejecting women bishops was 'willfully blind,' Church of England leader says

    Yui Mok / Pool via AP

    The outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, center right, embraces an unidentified person after draft legislation introducing the first women bishops in the Church of England failed to receive final approval from the Church of England General Synod, at Church House in central London, on Nov. 20.

     

    By Becky Bratu, NBC News

    The Church of England appears to be "willfully blind" to the rest of the world, outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams said Wednesday after the church's legislative body voted Tuesday against allowing women bishops.


    "Whatever the motivations for voting yesterday, whatever the theological principle on which people acted and spoke, the fact remains that a great deal of this discussion is not intelligible to our wider society - worse than that, it seems that we are willfully blind to some of the trends and priorities in that wider society," Williams said.

    After hours of debate, bishops and clergy in the General Synod comfortably backed the change but lay members were four votes short of a two-thirds majority required in all three houses to pass the measure. Williams fears the church is busy engaging in a debate that mystifies much of the world, where women are seen as equal partners.

    "The work to do internally is considerable - but, it's tempting to say, that is as nothing compared with the work we have to do externally. We have, to put it very bluntly, a lot of explaining to do," Williams said, according to the BBC.

    The debate over the ordination of women bishops has been dividing the Church of England for more than a decade. More than two years ago, in February 2010, Williams warned the synod that infighting over women bishops and gay priests could result in a schism within the Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church in the United States, a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, approved a same-sex blessing service this summer. 

    Women already serve as Anglican bishops in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States, where Barbara Harris made history in Massachusetts in 1989 when she became the first woman ordained as a bishop in the Anglican Communion. The Church of England is part of the Anglican Communion, an international association of Anglican churches with about 80 million members worldwide. The archbishop of Canterbury is the symbolic leader of this movement but has no authority outside England.

    Church of England votes against allowing women bishops

    According to church rules, the vote may not be brought back before the synod during the current term, ending in 2015.

    Some, however, remain hopeful that women's ordination is only a matter of time.

    "There will be women bishops in my lifetime," Archbishop of York Dr. John Sentamu said, according to the BBC.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

  • London bans 'gay cure' ads from buses

    Core Issues

    Core Issue ad, "Not gay! Ex-gay, post-gay and proud. Get over it" was pulled before it could run on London buses.

    By msnbc.com staff

    Advertisements suggesting a cure for being gay were banned Thursday from running on London buses, British media reported.

    The ads by Christian groups Core Issues Trust and Anglican Mainstream said, “Not gay! Ex-gay, post-gay and proud. Get over it!” The words implying that people can get over being gay were scheduled to run for two weeks on 25 buses beginning next week.

    The campaign was developed in response to gay-advocacy group Stonewall’s 1,000-bus equal-marriage campaign that began April 1. Its ads boast "Some people are gay. Get over it."

    Stonewall

    A 'Some People Are Gay. Get Over It!' advertisement on a London bus.

    The Christian groups used the same black, red and white color scheme as Stonewall.

    Core Issues leader Mike Davidson has said "homoerotic behavior is sinful," The Guardian reported.

    The Core Issues website says it supports men and women with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek change in sexual preference and expression and that it "respects the rights" of individuals who do not seek change.

    "Heterosexual preference is the goal of gender-affirming therapy and this may lead to marriage," the group says.

    Conservative London Mayor Boris Johnson used his position as Transport for London chairman to ditch the Christian ads. In his statement, reported by The Guardian, Johnson said:

    Oli Scarff / Getty Images

    Boris Johnson, mayor of London, is shown April 10.

    "London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance. It is clearly offensive to suggest that being gay is an illness that someone recovers from and I am not prepared to have that suggestion driven around London on our buses."

    After the mayor blocked the ads, Stonewall spokesman Andy Wasley said, "It is fantastic that no adverts will be promoting voodoo, gay-cure therapy in London."

    Davidson told the Press Association: "I didn't realize censorship was in place. We went through the correct channels and we were encouraged by the bus company to go through their procedures. They OKed it and now it has been pulled."

    The ban comes a day after “The American Prospect” ran an article in which retired psychiatrist and Columbia University professor Robert Spitzer retracted a much-criticized 2001 study used for years by anti-gay activists to buttress their claims that gay men and lesbians can be “cured” of their homosexuality through therapy. Spitzer asked the author, Gabriel Arana, to print a retraction of the 2001 study so that he “wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.”

    More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Phone hacking lawsuits to be filed in US courts
    Drug smuggler needed: Mexico cartels, US battle in classified ads
    Blind author's work recovered by forensic experts after her pen ran dry
    N. Korea official says Thursday rocket launch unlikely

    Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

  • Rowan Williams quits: could Anglican church have its first black spiritual leader?

    Leon Neal / AFP - Getty Images

    A file picture taken on July 11, 2008 shows Archbishop of York John Sentamu speaking to the media about the plight of the people who have fled Zimbabwe in Parliament Square in London.

    By Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com

    LONDON - The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams - spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion - is to step down, ending a turbulent era in which Church of England has been sharply divided on issues such as same-sex marriage, female clergy and gay bishops.

    He announced on his website Friday he would be leaving his post at the end of the year after a decade of wrestling with the near-impossible task of reconciling traditionalists and liberals among the church's 77 million worldwide followers.

    The church is known in the U.S. as the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Its Presiding Bishop is currently Katharine Jefferts Schori.

    "Williams was in an almost impossible position, trying to keep together the two tectonic plates of the increasingly liberal American Anglican church and the conservatives in Africa," Jonathan Wynne-Jones, a Chicago-based journalist and former Religious Affairs Correspondent of Britain's Sunday Telegraph told msnbc.com.

    "The Episcopal Church is very liberal on issues such as gay marriage and gay clergy - it ordained a lesbian bishop two years ago - and Williams has been caught between them and conservatives without really satisfying either side."

    Williams has also tried to reach an agreed position on the ordination of women as bishops in the Church of England after a string of traditionalists left to join the Roman Catholic church.

    Unlike the Catholic Church, the Anglican movement's head has no direct control over its members, making the structure of authority harder to define. It has approximately 1.9 million followers in the United States and central America.

    Williams, an academic and a poet, will move to a new post as master of Magdalene College at Cambridge University.

    In an interview with the Press Association on Friday, he spoke of the demands of the job, hoping that his successor "has the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros".

    He added: "I think the Church of England is a great treasure. I wish my successor well in the stewardship of it."

    The current favorite to succeed him is the Uganda-born Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, a populist conservative with a high media profile thanks to his attention-grabbing acts, such as sky-diving to raise money for families of servicemen killed in Afghanistan.

    The Daily Telegraph reported that other possible contenders to replace Williams include: Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London who gave the address at the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton last year; Bishop of Bradford Nick Baines, known as the ''blogging'' bishop, in recognition of his enthusiasm for new media; and Tim Stevens, the Bishop of Leicester.

    However, Wynne-Jones said: "Sentamu is the hot favorite but I would not be surprised if the eventual choice is somebody who has kept a lower profile."

    More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world