Rowan Williams quotes - page 2

Actual human discourse happens within a number of contexts, not in some sort of unified public forum. (Rowan Williams)
In sharp contrast to the idea that this stage of life is enviable, we hear high levels of anxiety about getting old, anxieties about health, mobility, access to facilities, simple routine care and attention. View quote
Rowan Williams
The answer was that in Burundi, having a clean bill of health has taken on a very particular meaning: unless and until you have paid for your hospital treatment, you simply can't leave, you are in effect a captive. View quote
Rowan Williams
We shall not find life by refusing to let go of our precious, protected selves. View quote
Rowan Williams
I have to go on being a priest and bishop, that is, to celebrate God and what God has done in Jesus, and to offer in God's name whatever I can discern of God's perspective on the world around - something which involves both challenge and comfort. View quote
Rowan Williams
Whether something is old-fashioned or not doesn't resolve the question of whether it's true or not. I can see the temptation of simply thinking, 'Well, there's a cultural mainstream which flows neatly in one direction. You just align with it'. And that really won't do. View quote
Rowan Williams
We are called to show utter commitment to the God who is revealed in Jesus and to all those to whom His invitation is addressed. View quote
Rowan Williams
I value unity because I believe we learn truth from each other in this process. View quote
Rowan Williams
As the gospels present it to us, the mission of Jesus of Nazareth is about the way in which the community of God's people - historically, the Jewish people who had first received the law and the covenant - is being re-created in relation to Jesus himself. View quote
Rowan Williams
In spite of the haze of speculation, it is still something of a shock to find myself here, coming to terms with an enormous trust placed in my hands and with the inevitable sense of inadequacy that goes with that. View quote
Rowan Williams
Let's cut to the chase, the sharia controversy. I don't think I, or my colleagues, predicted just how enormous the reaction would be. I failed to find the right words. I succeeded in confusing people. I've made mistakes - that's probably one of them. (Rowan Williams)
I think there is a great deal of interest still in the Christian faith. View quote
Rowan Williams
My visit this autumn is an opportunity to continue that rich tradition of visits between Canterbury and Rome. View quote
Rowan Williams
The Church is the new creation, it is life and joy, it is the sacramental fellowship in which we share the ultimate purpose of God, made real for us now in our hearing the Word and sharing the Sacrament. View quote
Rowan Williams
Violence is not to be undertaken by private persons. If a state or administration acts without due and visible attention to agreed international process, it acts in a way analogous to a private person. It purports to be judge of its own interest. View quote
Rowan Williams
What can we say about a marketing culture that so openly feeds and colludes with obsession? The Disney empire has developed this to an unprecedented degree of professionalism. View quote
Rowan Williams
I do feel that federation, loose parallel processes, are less than we've got, less than we could have and, in the very long run, less than what God wants in the Church. View quote
Rowan Williams
Christians should emphatically be campaigning for justice for the poor - but the Church is not a campaign. View quote
Rowan Williams
Institutions develop because people put a lot of trust in them, they meet real needs, they represent important aspirations, whether it's monasteries, media, or banks, people begin by trusting these institutions, and gradually the suspicion develops that actually they're working for themselves, not for the community. View quote
Rowan Williams
Even when I was Archbishop of Wales and working with new bishops, I used to say, not realising quite how true it was, 'One of the things you will do as a bishop is disappoint people'. View quote
Rowan Williams
The twentieth century may tell us that we have nothing to be complacent about in the recent history of humankind; but it also tells us that there is nothing inevitable about tyranny. (Rowan Williams)
Christian teaching about sex is not a set of isolated prohibitions; it is an integral part of what the Bible has to say about living in such a way that our lives communicate the character of God. View quote
Rowan Williams