The Archbishop of Canterbury’s invitation yesterday to all primates to meet in January to thrash out their differences is a bold attempt to end the arguments that have brought the Anglican church to the brink of schism. It is also a high-risk strategy, with splits and walkouts more likely than agreement or even agreement to disagree. Why has he taken this step now?
First, he is determined to focus Anglicans on the most serious issues confronting Christians today, from violence and persecution in the Middle East to poverty and the protection of vulnerable children throughout the developing world. This is impossible as long as they are wasting their energies quarrelling among themselves. Like Rowan Williams, his predecessor, he wants to keep the 80 million-strong communion together, but not at any price. So he is proposing a looser, less imperial structure. A church can decide not to remain in communion with every other one, as long as it retains a clear link with Canterbury. As a source at Lambeth Palace suggests, it is not a divorce; more like sleeping in separate beds.
Second, the archbishop, a former oil executive, likes clarity. The communion cannot go on pretending that all is well when it is not.
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