Introductory Reflections - Introducing the Colloquium

One of the basic insights of inter-faith engagement is that one should not compare the best of oneself against the worst of another. It is a perennial temptation; but its seductiveness in no way justifies it. This makes me particularly reticent about commenting in today’s Colloquium about the reception of Vatican II fifty years on. I say this because I know my own Church of Ireland tradition all too well. First, it is a complex of disparate raditions; secondly, it is far from homogeneous; thirdly, it is slow to take the responsibilities which risk demands and change requires. So how could I expect the miracles of liberalism in a church tradition which has perforce been subjected to the same historical mauling as has my own, leaving us reluctant to believe that change can bring anything but institutional bereavement?

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Archbishop Michael Jackson

Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Glendalough, Chairman of the Network of Inter-Faith European and North American Concerns, and co-chair of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission with the Chief Rabbis of Israel.