An e-mail criticizing the Archbishop of Canterbury proved to be an embarrassment in late January for the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Canon Kenneth Kearon.

The Church Times reported that Mr. Kearon wrote to U.S. Episcopal Church gay activist Louie Crew that Archbishop Rowan Williams was being poorly advised in his relations with the Episcopal church. Mr. Crew then wrote on his Web site that he had shared the e-mail with several friends, one of whom had “betrayed” him by releasing it to the media.

Mr. Kearon was responding to an open message from U.S. Bishop Paul Marshall, of the diocese of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, who upbraided Archbishop Williams for distancing himself from the American church and spending more time with dissidents in that country than the U.S. house of bishops or the church’s triennial General Convention (please see Canterbury, p. 1 and this page).

“Sadly, it’s very accurate and is almost the script for a very difficult meeting I had with him,” wrote Mr. Kearon. He also wrote, “advisers (and sadly I’m not one of them) are at the heart of this.” He did not respond publicly to the publication of his correspondence.