In the subsequent speech, the Archbishop of Canterbury called the current dispute “one of the most severe challenges to face the Anglican family.”
But Dr Williams said: “We need to get beyond the reciprocal impatience that shows itself in the ways in which both liberals and traditionalists are ready ”“ almost eager at times, it appears ”“ to assume the other is not actually listening to Jesus.”
The message came as a senior Archbishop confirmed that doubt felt by bishops about the state of the Communion had been removed by a series of “revelatory” closed-door sermons delivered by Dr Williams last week. Bishops “warmed enormously” to Dr Williams’s message of unity, said the Archbishop of Brisbane and Primate of the Anglican Province of Australia, Phillip Aspinall.
Against the odds, Dr Williams has created a strong sense of unity among the bishops at the University of Kent. Walking a tightrope between liberals and conservatives over sexuality and gender, Dr Williams has focused bishops’ minds on the higher meaning of their mission. Archbishop Aspinall said Dr Williams “put it to us that we must go into this conference confident that a way has been found to the Father through the Cross”.
Is there any reason why we rarely learn of any conservative reactions to the incessant blather about light and beatitude emanating from the Cathedral and Lambeth precincts?