Anglicans mull call for Faith and Order Commission

Bishops at the Lambeth Conference are mulling calls for the establishment of a Faith and Order Commission to help move the worldwide Anglican Communion beyond its present crisis.

Under proposals presented by the Windsor Continuation Group this week, the Faith and Order Commission would "give guidance on the ecclesiological issues" dividing the Anglican Communion, most notably homosexuality.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said it was too early to be specific about what form such a commission would take but confirmed his support for the proposals.

"I don't want to say too much about the detail of that because it is a flag raised to see who salutes at this stage," he told reporters on Friday. "But there is a very strong feeling that we need another kind of structure in the Communion that will be a clearing house for some of these issues...

"I'm actually quite enthusiastic about that as a proposal. We'll see how it flies," he added.

Insiders at the once-in-a-decade conference speculated on Friday that the commission would be of similar significance to the Pontifical Biblical Commission of the Roman Catholic Church, a powerful body of cardinals formed to make authoritative decisions on doctrinal disputes among Catholics.

Although the Lambeth Conference does not have the authority to impose prescriptions, Dr Williams said that he was looking for "consent, not coercion".

"... Unless we do have something about which we consent, which we can trust to resolve our differences, we shall be flying further apart."

A reflection group will work over the weekend to process feedback from the indaba - or discussion - groups after the first week of official business wrapped up on Friday. The group will present its findings on Monday before the bishops turn to the "sensitive" issues of homosexuality and the draft Anglican Covenant on structures of unity, the Archbishop said.

Asked of his expectations for the coming week, Dr Williams replied, "What I hope will have emerged this week is a sense that it's worth working and staying together; that relationships deepened this week will have made people see that the unity and cooperation of the communion is not a small thing and its loss will not be taken lightly."

Conservative Anglicans who attended the Global Anglican Future Conference in June issued a statement earlier in the week in which they rejected the draft Covenant as "seriously limited and severely flawed".

The GAFCON Theological Resource Team cited a "lack of formal accountability on the part of the Archbishop of Canterbury" and complained of a failure to deal with "moral and doctrinal error".