CT: Do you think the Archbishop of Sudan was right to issue his statement on homosexuality?
TW: It is very difficult to know when to release statements but I think there was some pressure on the Sudanese bishops to say something and when the question was put that is what they came up with and good luck to them, they have every right to do that.
Of course, some people were shocked by it. Some people have tried to dismiss it. Some people even astonishingly suggested that some westerners wrote the statement for them, which is an extraordinary thing to say.
When you just think for a moment of what the Sudanese have been through and what they face: a church without money, without buildings, without a fixed abode in many places, working locally in appalling conditions. Those Christians who live in comfortable houses who actually have a salary, we just look at them in admiration and if they believe it is time to do something then I am not going to say from my position that I can tell them they are wrong.
CT: Do you agree with the content of the Sudanese statement?
TW: What they have done in their statement is simply reaffirm what the Anglican Communion has always taught and what the historic churches in Christendom have always taught. It is sad that these things need to be reaffirmed - clearly they do. So for millions of Christians around the world all that they have said is 'we are still believing what we have always believed'. So it's not exceptional.
CT: Even some of the ecumenical partners here have admitted that if they were in the Archbishop of Canterbury's shoes they also wouldn't know what to do. How do you deal with the polar opposites in the Communion?
TW: Well, there are some polar opposites, but there are also lots of people in the shades of grey in between who are genuinely trying to listen to each other and it is frustrating because we would have thought they could have been listening for the last five years but in some cases they just seem genuinely not to have been able to do that and if this Lambeth Conference helps people who thought they were in these polar opposite camps to listen to each other and see there are ways forward...
There are no ways forward taking the two polar opposites with us but it isn't a case of 'either you are all the way there' or 'you are all the way here'. Nor is it a soggy, fuzzy compromise in the middle. There are some definite things that have to be said and done and the Archbishop has said Windsor and the Covenant are the way to go and that's why he's invited us to Lambeth, to help him take that path.
If we follow that through, we will find a way of keeping the great majority of the Communion on board and raising a standard to say to those who don't want to go there, look, this is actually where the rest of us are, please can't you see your way to join us. We don't want to lose people. We are not in the business of getting a big stick or whatever. We are saying this is authentic Anglicanism and we do hope you will see that with us.
