The paradox of Dr Rowan Williams is that he brought great distinction to the office of Archbishop of Canterbury without actually achieving anything remarkable. The cards were stacked against him from the start, and would have daunted a lesser man long ago. The present-day Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion contain too many instances of immovable objects colliding with irresistible forces – conflicts that even divine grace apparently cannot resolve – for anyone trying to manage them to feel anything but besieged and beleaguered.

Dr Williams’ usual air of cheerfulness came from somewhere else – from a sense of priorities rooted in more important things, the worship of the One True God chief among them. And he has that special ability as a man of God, last seen at large in British public life in the person of Cardinal Basil Hume, of conveying a sense of spiritual groundedness to all who meet him.

To measure him by achievement is to miss the point. He has shone forth as pastor, poet, sage, philosopher and outstanding spiritual example to the whole nation. When devious political skills were called for, he played Machiavelli badly – which was also to his credit. The necessary ambiguities and compromise formulas that leaders of large organisations must sometimes learn to live with were manifestly uncongenial to him. This may explain, indeed, why he was so comfortable in the presence of Pope Benedict – that, and an instinctive appreciation, common to both, of how beauty and truth may serve each other in the liturgy. Cunning as serpents they are not. Things may fall apart around them while they maintain a serene centre – to the exasperation, no doubt, of those who want problems quickly fixed.

He is wise to have tendered his resignation nevertheless, as other tactics are at least worth trying if the Anglican Church, in both its national and international incarnation, is not to fall apart in the near future. ...

Sir Terry Leahy, the Catholic entrepreneur and former head of Tesco, is the latest business leader to express concern that society is losing sight of the need for wealth creation. ...

A succession of former Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police have been telling the Leveson Inquiry how essential it was that they developed close relations with national newspaper journalists. Lord Justice Leveson did not seem overly impressed. A police force fixated on its public relations image stands at one end of a spectrum, at the other end of which, it is not unfair to say, stands the Catholic Church ...

With the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer due to visit Washington next week for talks with President Barack Obama, the key members of the Coalition Government – David Cameron and George Osborne, together with their Lib Dem counterparts, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander – have spent the last few days negotiating and finalising the 21 March ...

While the typical care home for the infirm and elderly no doubt does an adequate job at a purely material level, many of them also leave a great deal to be desired when it comes to the quality of human engagement.
As a joint report by agencies concerned in the running of hospitals and residential care explained this week, it is too easy to fail to offer compassion and respect and instead treat elderly people like ...

The contest between an ultra-conservative ultra-Catholic on the one hand and a billionaire venture capitalist Mormon on the other is one of the most intriguing spectacles American politics has offered the world for some time. For instance, Democrats in Michigan campaigned for Republican Rick Santorum in the presidential primary elections, in the hope of maximising the damage his candidacy is doing to the party’s ...

Israel and its friends in the West, the United States in particular, face a huge dilemma with regard to Iran. They believe on good evidence, and despite its denials, that the Government headed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is attempting to acquire nuclear weapons. Israel is the most likely intended target. Mr Ahmadinejad’s widely reported remarks in 2005, that “Israel must be wiped off the map”, have not been ...

During the consumer boom, when the emphasis was on acquisition rather than giving things up, Lent seemed incongruously counter-cultural. It pushed against the incoming materialist tide. Things are very different now. Lent and austerity seem made for each other. There were always those who, in the midst of plenty, chose a simpler lifestyle. But it was a voluntary choice, the path of virtue. Many are having to downsize ...