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Contrary to the declaration in the Daily Mail that the Archbishop of Canterbury had 'misjudged the political mood' in his trenchant call to the powerful and privileged in his Jubilee congregation to stand up against the 'ludicrous financial greed, environmental recklessness, collective fear of strangers and collective contempt for the unsuccessful and marginal', that message has proved to be prophetic.
Even as the Archbishop was delivering his sermon, the modern day morality tale of the nexus between the powerful and the powerless was unfolding under the shadow of London Bridge, the site past which the pomp and pageantry of the Queen's diamond jubilee regatta paraded.
The 'collective contempt' of the privileged and rich towards the 'unsuccessful and marginal' that the Archbishop referred to was clearly closer to home than any of the congregation envisaged. Eighty jobseekers and apprentices - designated as stewards for the Jubilee celebrations - were being bussed into London in the middle of the night from the South West. In a scene which to me is reminiscent of Dickensian England, executives of Close Protection UK - funded through a Government welfare-to work contract - thought it acceptable to expect the unemployed to sleep under London Bridge without basic sleeping, toilet or changing facilities for a paltry £2.80 per hour for 14-hour shifts.
The long shadow of the Occupy protestors – the symbolic 99% protesting against the greed of the 1% - who had turned St.Paul's Cathedral into a battleground between the Davids 'defending' deprived communities and the Goliath 'Masters' of the square mile, must have shaped the Archbishop's reflections.
The Church's role as the conscience of the nation is not new. The arc of history knits the post-industrial exploitation of labour with the contemporary reality of austerity Britain. In 2012, inequality has returned to 1918 levels with the average pay of chief executives being £4.2 million or 162 times the British average. With the stratification of society becoming increasingly institutionalized, paying heed to the Archbishop's call to communitarianism, requires nothing less than a Damascene conversion.
For a government that has shaped a political ideology on the triptych of commerce, profit and consumerism, the likelihood of creating a society that transcends 'narrow individual fulfillment' for the greater good lies within the realm of an alternate universe. Instead, the values that define many organisations working for the common good, for example through the Work Programme, appear to mimic the ethos of the private sector.
Similarly the scandal surrounding another Work programme contractor - A4E currently under investigation for fraudulent activities amounting to millions of pounds of public monies - should not surprise us. The raft of measures announced by the government to reduce the burdens on businesses by rolling back equality, health and safety and scrutiny safeguards have effectively taken away any measure of state protection offered to the most vulnerable.
The Archbishop's address exposes the dark underbelly that is the flipside of political, economic and class privilege. It forces us to look beyond the labels that those in power ascribe to the powerless – scroungers, benefit cheats, wanton criminals – by reversing the mirror which reflects back the recent rapaciousness of MPs caught with their fingers in the public till, the offshore tax fugitives, the self-interested donors filling party coffers.
While the State censures last summer's rioters with heavy prison sentences, the self same State risks misuse and abuse of the Work Programme through a regime of light touch regulation.
In the days and weeks to come the call for an inquiry into the Thames stewards' affair will no doubt dominate much political debate and commentary. Politicians can be expected to do a Pontius Pilate, to use a Biblical allusion, and wash their hands off this sorry affair.
But the truth is that the outgoing Archbishop has succeeded in pricking the conscience of the government in his steadfast commitment to preaching the message of social justice and equality.
Already the voices of Tory dissent are circling around him, clamouring for a tradtionalist candidate. Whoever replaces Rowan Williams, his call for each of us to 'show honour, extend hospitality to strangers, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another' is inspiring. It must remain the Church's clarion call if it is to remain relevant to the aspirations of those without voice, power or influence.
Ratna Lachman is director of JUST West Yorkshire which promotes racial justice, civil liberties and human rights in the north of England.
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