Apology sent to mines chief

Press, 28 September 1984, Page 6

Apology sent to mines chief

NZPA-AAP London The Archbishop of Canterbury has sent a private apology to Britain’s National Coal Board chief over criticism of him last week by an Anglican bishop, the “Daily Mail” reports. The Most Rev. Robert Runcie had indicated in a personal letter to lan MacGregor that he found the Bishop of Durham’s description of Mr MacGregor as “an imported elderly American” cheap and unChristian, the Fleet Street tabloid said.

Dr Runcie’s private apology appeared to conflict with his public defence of the Rt Rev. David Jenkins, last week-end. Dr Jenkins used his enthronement sermon to call for Mr MacGregor’s resignation over his handling of the seven-month-old miners’ strike and declared "the miners must not be defeated”.

He also attacked picket violence, the intransigence of the miners’ leader Arthur Scargill, and accused the Government of indifference to poverty and powerlessness.

Dr Runcie said afterwards that Dr Jenkins "must say what he believes his gospel requires him to

say, speaking from his position in the north-east” — an area hard hit by the dispute. He said that it had been a “robust statement about reconciliation, which all would agree is central to the Gospel message”. The “Daily Mail” said that Dr Runcie also had apologised to Mr MacGregor over his defence of Dr Jenkins’s remarks, but there was no indication he would do so publicly. A spokesman at Lambeth Palace, the archbishop’s official residence, said, “There has been a private and courteous exchange of letters initiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury.”