Dear Sir,
I would like to alert your readers to what the Anglican Communion owes Lord George Carey and his wife Eileen.
In December 1993, with his wife Eileen, he entered Sudan illegally with two other church officials and went to visit the south of the country, controlled by the Sudanese People’ Liberation Army – now the independent country of South Sudan. This provoked the Government of Sudan to expel the British Ambassador.
In April 1994, after he had been Archbishop three years, the Hutus, the ruling party in Rwanda, set about the genocide of all Tutsis. 800,000 were slaughtered. In May 1995, George Carey was among the first visitors to see the country after the genocide. He recalls meeting in May 1995 with Archbishop Augustin Nshamihigo, who was complicit in the ethnic ‘cleansing’. Carey told the Rwandan archbishop to return or resign. Nshamihigo resigned within a few weeks.
George Carey played a central role in securing the unity of the Anglican Communion in the contentious debates at Lambeth 1998 when the Episcopal Church of the USA clearly planned to overturn the churches’ teaching on same-sex behaviour.
He steered the legislation through the Synod allowing for the ordination of women to the priesthood by creating ‘two integrities’ which were intended to respect the convictions of those they disagreed with and to serve fully and equally in the Church of England.
Our Christian Queen held him in such esteem that she asked him to stay on past his initially intended retirement age of 65 to see in the Millennium and its celebrations.
In the dozen years since his retirement Lord Carey became an even more stalwart spokesman for orthodox Christian truth and ethics in the ‘culture wars’ than the constraints of his office appeared to allow him to be. He fronted the ‘Not Ashamed’ campaign led by Christian Concern in the UK.
Those who now join in to condemn him [see news item] would do well to read his 2004 memoirs Know the Truth (Harper Collins), lest the regrettable press reports of the last weeks colour all people recall of Lord Carey of Clifton.
Yours sincerely,
