Leadership in the Church of England at a Time of Crisis: Toward a Deconstruction of Normativity

Abstract

All too frequently, privileged white male power is unable to extricate its sense of normalcy from the leadership it exercises. This essay embarks upon a deconstruction of the modes of power and authority at work in the current leadership of the Church of England. This includes upholding a presumptive quasi-regal polity blended with the inevitable executive managerialism—what is termed an “ecclesiocracy” run by “ecclesiocrats,” supporting episcopacy. In beginning to deconstruct the power of the polity, we can see how alterity relates to what is held to be normative. This, in turn, poses searching questions for those who claim to hold presiding-mediating roles in English Anglican polity, which extends the life of some disputes and maintains averse hierarchical approaches to diversity.