Williams declares that all people can go to Heaven

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams yesterday expressed his anger at Church groups that are continuously battling against each other over homosexuality in the Church. The Archbishop said firmly that Christians did not have a monopoly on the afterlife.

The homosexual debate has been maintained throughout the two years in his position, and Rev Williams said that the discussions on the issue had lacked grace and patience. In particular he showed his irritation at pressure groups that had aggravated proceedings by posting instant reactions to events on their websites.

On a more solemn note, Williams also admitted to failing to live up to the public’s expectations of him. Many church leaders and congregation members have been left disappointed by the Archbishop, and there has been a strong public feeling that he should have been more radical in the ways he has put forward his views on Iraq as well as the homosexuality debate.

During a question and answer session at the Greenbelt Christian festival, which was attended by more than 15,000 people at Cheltenham race course over the bank holiday weekend, the Archbishop spoke of the rawness of the anger of the factions in the church.

Some evangelicals, particularly in England and the US, have threatened in effect to split the communion over their opposition to the promotion of homosexuals in the priesthood.

At the Greenbelt Festival, Williams shocked many traditionalists by declaring that all people may go to heaven. He said that no Christian has control over who goes to heaven and does not, but that “It is possible for God's spirit to cross boundaries.”

“I say this as someone who is quite happy to say that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except by Jesus. But how God leads people through Jesus to heaven, that can be quite varied, I think.”

Disappointedly, he also added, “It is not so much that we have disagreement in the Church - that happens. It is more to do with how those disagreements are conducted. The dismissiveness, the rawness of the anger . . . need to be worked with.”

Dr Jeffrey John, the gay cleric who sparked much fiery debate when he was appointed as Bishop of Reading, was also at the Greenbelt Festival. Dr John quickly withdrew from the position, but was later installed as Dean of St Albans.

Rev Williams said, “On both sides of the debate as it evolved, quite a lot of people had to learn that the Church of England wasn't just them, because what I heard a lot of on both sides of the controversy was 'we thought the Church of England was us and people like us and maybe one or two others who don't matter very much.

“I was intrigued by the mirror imaging that went on there. There was a sense on both sides, therefore, of shock and dispossession, that it is not all ours after all. It is not full of faithful evangelicals, it is not full of enlightened liberals. Very quickly pressure groups can form and settle and decide where they stand and invest in where they stand.

“We haven't had an effective forum in which that process can be slowed, not just for the sake of putting things off but for the sake of mutual understanding. We haven't quite found that forum yet. It is not the General Synod. It is certainly not the trading of websites.”

A Commission headed by the Primate of All Ireland, Robin Eames, is expected to report in October about the future structure of Anglicanism following the homosexual controversy. The commission members, mainly bishops and senior churchmen, have been meeting throughout the year to try to find a way through the crisis.