As [Rowan] Williams began his tenure as archbishop in 2003, though, the ordination of Robinson sent the issue of gay bishops to the head of the agenda. By last summer, with the Lambeth Conference approaching, schism seemed inevitable. Some bishops opposed to homosexual clergy held a rival conference in Jerusalem, denouncing Williams as a liberal pawn. Traditionalists announced plans to \u201cgo over\u201d\u009d to the Roman Catholic Church or form their own church unless Williams got rid of Robinson. Gay activists circulated an old essay by Williams in which he had eloquently celebrated gay and lesbian relationships; the commentariat mocked him as a holy fool for some approving remarks he had made about Islamic law. Friends of Williams said he might resign. \u201cGod has given you all the gifts,\u201d\u009d one friend told him, \u201cand as your punishment, he has made you archbishop of Canterbury.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
The schism hasn\u2019t come\u201d\u201dnot yet. The Anglican Communion, the world\u2019s third-largest group of Christians after the Catholics and the Orthodox, is still standing\u201d\u201da \u201chugely untidy but very lovable\u201d\u009d body, in the words of its most famous member, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel laureate. But its unity has been compromised. In December, a half-dozen bishops broke with the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and announced their plans to found a rival Anglican Community for North America.<\/p>\n
It is now, with his office under pressure from both left and right, that Rowan Williams\u2019s real work is beginning. Now he must persuade the aggrieved, quarrelsome people he leads to bear with one another once and for all.<\/p>\n