"We haven't suddenly reached a consensus about the issues of human sexuality. The problems are not all solved but there are significant differences," the Most Rev Philip Aspinall told reporters, as bishops got to grips with the most divisive issue in the Anglican Communion.
Joining the Archbishop were the Chair of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA), the Most Rev Ian Ernest, and the Bishop of Toronto, the Most Rev Colin Johnson, who both stressed that Thursday's debate on sexuality had gone far beyond the issue of homosexuality to tackle polygamy and sexual issues related to young people.
The Archbishop said that the "tone of engagement" at the current Lambeth Conference differed significantly from Lambeth 1998, when some bishops had booed and hissed their fellow bishops in opposition to their statements on human sexuality.
"The same degree of difference was very evident in the views held by the bishops, but at the end of the indaba (discussion) group, bishops on opposite sides of the spectrum on these issues actually embraced each other and thanked each other for helping them understand better what was at stake in these issues," he said.
"We haven't waved the magic wand but that is a very significant step forward," he added.
Archbishop Ernest said, "We are able to look at each other. We are able to shed tears with one another, but at the same time knowing that we've got different ways and different convictions."
Bishop Colin, meanwhile, quoted another unnamed bishop as saying, "We are now 'in indaba'. We are really, truly talking to one another."
He added, "It is not one sided versus another side ... It is trying to hold various paradoxes in appropriate tension."
The bishops denied side-stepping the homosexuality issue, which has bitterly divided the Anglican Communion since the consecration of the openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson.
"We are not stepping aside, we are engaging with it," said Archbishop Ernest.
Archbishop Aspinall, meanwhile, denied accusations that the bishops were merely "navel gazing" in the indaba groups.
"It doesn't feel like navel gazing from the inside. Significant steps are being taken in relationships between the bishops and growth in understanding is occurring," he stressed.
"Where we go from here remains to be seen ... but there are good signs at this stage," he said.
Referring to the 250 bishops boycotting the Lambeth Conference in protest of the pro-gay clergy present, Archbishop Aspinall said, "I think the perception pretty widely shared is that the whole Conference is the poorer because some bishops have chosen not to attend and those bishops themselves are poorer because they are not hear to engage with their brothers and sisters."
Archbishop Ernest, a prominent conservative within the Anglican Communion, said, meanwhile, that he wanted to act as a "bridge" between the absent bishops and those attending Lambeth. He added that he was in conversation with the boycotting bishops.
Bishops will continue discussions on human sexuality throughout Friday, including the draft Anglican Covenant on structures of unity within the Communion.
A group of bishops is presently drafting reflections from the entire Lambeth Conference in which they acknowledge "great tensions" and an "erosion of trust" among Anglicans.
The draft also states, "There is concern caused by a perceived lack of restraint and self-limitation, by impaired communion and by intervention across provinces."
