Archbishop of Canterbury - Communion challenges require 'generosity and patience'
March 6, 2007

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has said that generosity and patience will be required for the Anglican Communion in the days ahead. In a Pastoral Letter sent to the Primates of the Anglican Communion, Dr Williams say that the recent meeting in Tanzania had been difficult, but that the issues had been properly aired.

‘It was far from being an easy few days, but there was a great deal of honesty in our conversation, and a direct facing of the tensions that we still find in the life of the Communion.’

The Primates’ decision to address some questions to the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church shouldn’t be understood as bypassing the church’s structures:

‘To address these requests to the American House of Bishops is not to ignore the polity of The Episcopal Church, but to acknowledge that the bishops have a key role, acknowledged in the Constitution of that church, in authorising liturgies within their dioceses and in giving consent to the election of candidates for Episcopal order.’

Archbishop Williams expressed the hope that the proposed Pastoral Council could be developed quickly, as it would help in the development of pastoral provision for those in The Episcopal Church seeking alternative pastoral oversight: the rest