The Archbishop of Canterbury's New Vestments
I am a lad now so many years ago, and my fifth grade teacher is reading her class a story. It is Hans Christian Andersen's, "The Emperor's New Clothes" and seems to paint a picture of an inept, bumbling ruler who, along with many of his subjects, is given over to the power of persuasion by dishonest and mean-spirited men. The men are tailors who tell the emperor they are crafting a new suit of clothes, the finest ever made, fabricated from materials which are visible only to those who are capable and competent. As the emperor parades down the street in the new clothes it takes the intervention of a child, an innocent, to help the emperor realize in his foolishness that he is indeed naked, wearing nothing at all. Some say it is impertinent for a retired priest to question or criticize the Archbishop of Canterbury, and indeed so it might be to some at least foolish. Nonsense. When the Archbishop begins worship without his cope and miter, someone needs to remind him