'Gay marriage' letters could wreck plans to salvage the Anglican Communion

Damian Thompson
Holy Smoke
Thursday, August 7, 2008

The revelation that Rowan Williams thinks gay relationships are "comparable to marriage" will have devastating consequences for his attempts to hold together the Anglican Communion.

American Episcopalians will seize on his leaked letters as the perfect excuse to ignore the ban on same-sex blessings that Dr Williams supported at Lambeth.

Rowan's defenders will argue that, in his letters, he makes it clear that he is speaking as a theologian, not a church leader – and, anyway, we already knew that this was his view, from a previous lecture he gave. Those arguments don't work. the rest