Rowan Williams Day

I am declaring today, or what's left of it, as "Rowan Williams Day".

First there were his welcome remarks to the Spectator about church disestablishmentarianism (sorry I can't put an "anti" at the beginning of that and win an award for the longest word on this blog since....since....oh well since since).

Now he's popped up again on Radio Four.

He's trying to drag religion into Christmas isn't he? Nit wit.

Anyway, on Radio Four he gave us some refreshing home truths on the recession:

The credit crunch is a welcome "reality check" for a society that has become driven by unsustainable greed, the Archbishop of Canterbury said.
Rowan Williams also hit out at Gordon Brown's plans to combat recession by boosting spending, likening them to an "addict returning to the drug".
The head of the Church of England's outspoken comments came as he delivered a scathing assessment of "moral" failings in Britain's economy.
Interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he insisted the country had been "going in the wrong direction" for decades by relying on financial speculation to generate wealth quickly rather than "making things".
The UK had backed itself "into a corner", and must now rediscover "patience" and re-think the way it viewed material gain, he said.
Asked whether that meant the global financial crisis wracking the economy had been beneficial, Dr Williams replied: "It is a sort of a reality check, isn't it - which is always good for us.
"A reminder that what I think some people have called fairy gold is just that - that sooner or later you have to ask: 'What are we making or what are we assembling or accumulating wealth for?'."
Dr Williams went on: "I would like to think that in this sort of crisis people would be reflecting more on how you develop a volunteer culture, how you develop a culture of people willing to put their services at the needs of others so that there can be a more active, a more vital civil society."
The archbishop called on the Government to give more of a lead on "how the civil society is created". He expressed concerns over the Prime Minister's "fiscal stimulus" package, which included cutting VAT to get the public spending again.