Perhaps the most critical proposal is the one seeking to repeal or retract B033, a resolution passed in 2006 that calls for restraint in ordaining bishops "whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church" – mainly noncelibate homosexuals.
Ahead of this month’s convention, Anglican leaders overseas have warned The Episcopal Church against rescinding resolution B033 or passing any resolution that would further put the American Church at odds with the larger Anglican Church.
The Most Rev Drexel Gomez, the Archbishop of the West Indies and chairman of the Covenant Working Group, said in May that if the General Convention rescinds resolution B033 and removes any barriers to persons involved in same-sex relationships, it will "imperil" the work of the Covenant and will have an impact on the rest of the communion because of the responses others will need to make.
Similarly, Dr Williams said on Thursday that he hoped and prayed there would be no decisions in the coming days that could push Anglicans further apart.
“But if people elsewhere in the Communion are concerned about this, it's because of a profound sense of what the Episcopal Church has given and can give to our fellowship worldwide,” he clarified, listing the great Episcopalian theologian William Stringfellow, as one of a number of gifts that have come out from The Episcopal Church.
“[W]e are already bound to each other, and our life is invested in each other, in those we see and those we don't, those we like and those we don't,” Dr Williams added.
Earlier in his address, the Anglican leader acknowledged that it had been hard for Anglicans on all sides of the debates and said honestly that he suspects it "will not get much easier".
Still, Williams said he was thankful for The Episcopal Church's willingness to engage with the wider life of the Communion.
“May this gathering be a sign of life in the face of death, a declaration of who we are in Jesus and with one another, in the heart of God the Holy Trinity: chosen friends who, miraculously, know something of that God's longing for what has been made,” he concluded.
The 87th General Convention is scheduled to end on July 17.
