Anglican leader laments 'terrible and gruelling' decade

(AFP)
posted Jan. 1, 2010

LONDON — The world had endured a "terrible and gruelling" past decade, the Archbishop of Canterbury said in a New Year message Friday that called for cooperation to tackle issues like extremism and global warming.

Rowan Williams, the leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, added though that people should not give up on the "hope for change" or "shrug our shoulders and lower our expectations".

It had been a "terrible and gruelling 10 years in all kinds of ways", he said, stressing the global nature of many of today's concerns.

"The truth is that there are fewer and fewer problems in our world that are just local.

"Suffering and risk spread across boundaries, even that biggest of all boundaries between the rich and the poor. Crises don't stop at national frontiers. the rest