Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, bishop of the diocese of Kaduna in Nigeria, said he believes there are extreme conservatives and liberals within the Communion, but a majority of about 70 per cent of Anglicans are in the middle and want the Communion to hold together.<\/p>\n
Idowu-Fearon, in speaking about the Communion\u2019s instruments of unity\u201d\u201dthe Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Primates\u2019 Meeting and the Anglican Consultative Council\u201d\u201doffered suggestions for making them more effective, including creating a commission to decide whether the Lambeth Conference should be designed for talk or decision-making; giving the Archbishop of Canterbury direct oversight of the Anglican Consultative Council; and the idea that each primate could come to the Primates\u2019 Meeting, accompanied and advised by both a liberal and a conservative on controversial issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, as Anglicans, it is about time we stopped running away from the fact that we are two groups\u201d\u201dthe liberal and the conservatives,\u201d\u009d Idowu-Fearon said. The primates might not agree, but there is an opportunity for building understanding, he said, adding that recommendations from the Primates\u2019 Meeting could then be taken to the Anglican Consultative Council, like a synod. \u201cIf this Communion has a mission, which is to unite the church, we must learn to accommodate one another,\u201d\u009d he said. \u201cThe conservatives have been very arrogant, the liberals have been very despotic, and I believe we both need to ask the world for forgiveness\u201d\u00a6\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n