On Sunday, they leave Canterbury, England, and return to their dioceses, hoping their talks at the Lambeth Conference have held off a permanent split over the Bible and homosexuality.
“We seem often to be threatening death to each other, not offering life,” Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told the 650 bishops at the event. “We need to speak life to each other and that means change.”
Long-simmering differences over what Anglicans should believe erupted in 2003, when the Episcopal Church, the Anglican body in the U.S., consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Anglican theological conservatives recently formed their own worldwide network within the communion that challenges Williams’ authority but stops short of schism.
No one expected the conference to definitively resolve the conflict.
More than 200 traditionalist bishops boycotted Lambeth. Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, planned the event with no resolutions or votes, focusing instead on rebuilding frayed relationships. In place of an official end-of-meeting statement, the bishops Sunday will release their “reflections” on the event.
Still, the gathering was closely watched by other religious groups.