And what else, you were
about to ask, is new? A
gathering at Canterbury
has yielded to market
realities, in the dwind-
ling communion of Angli-
cans, north of Jiddah
and Jakarta. A vibrant
competition for souls
in the nether regions
has inspired a schis-
matic suspension of a
fraternal minority, to
lend credibility to a
promisingly aggressive
evangelism. And hasn't
this just the pitch of
messianic authoritarian-
ism at its scrupulously
grisly best?
"Divide and conquer" has
never looked more ironic,
enacting its own metaphor,
as alluringly tectonic.
A sect, instigated by di-
vorce and disseminated
by expulsion, has shown
it can make any peace it
wants, with opportunism;
is there anything like
schism, to sharpen recti-
tude where it's needed?
Good luck to them, whit-
tling the cross of com-
passion, for praise as
cut-throats.
William Orpen
T.E. Lawrence
1919
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