Carey urges more 'coal face' bishops

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2540

[The Telegraph] May 30, 2005--The former archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has lambasted the Church of England for appointing too few bishops with real parish experience.

Lord Carey said that if the Church was to reverse the decline in churchgoing, it needed leaders with proven ability to increase their congregations when they were vicars.

Instead, he said, most of them lacked the background to understand the pressures that ordinary parish priests were under. His attack will irritate many of his former colleagues, who are involved in a huge effort to reverse the long-term haemorrhage of worshippers in the Church.