Bishops hope for united future as Lambeth comes to end

|PIC1|Bishops set their sights on a more united future on Sunday as the once-in-a-decade Lambeth Conference drew to a close with appeals from the Archbishop of Canterbury for all Anglicans to walk the road forward together.

In his final presidential address of the conference, Dr Rowan Williams said there was "wide support" for the suspension of ordinations of gay people, blessings for same-sex couples, and cross-border interventions.

"The theological ground for a plea for moratoria is the need to avoid this confusion so that discernment continues together," he said.

The Archbishop also made it clear that the US Episcopal Church, which consecrated Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, is expected to abide by the moratoria.

"If North American churches do not accept the need for a moratoria [on same sex blessings and the consecration of gay clergy] we are no further forward. We continue to be in grave peril," he said.

A Pastoral Forum to care for conservative churches would help to "avoid further ecclesial confusion", he said.

Dr Williams went on to reaffirm his support for the Anglican Covenant, saying that it had the potential to make Anglicans "more of a church; more of a 'catholic' church in the proper sense, a church, that is, which understands its ministry and service and sacraments as united and interdependent throughout the world".

He insisted that bishops at Lambeth had "not evaded" the difficult questions, although he conceded that some in the Communion had not received the answers they were hoping for.

More than 200 conservative bishops boycotted the conference in protest of the presence of pro-gay bishops, including some of those involved in the consecration of the openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson. They instead held their own meeting in Jerusalem in June, the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON).

In his strongest public acknowledgement of GAFCON to date, Dr Williams said he would look for ways to "build bridges" with bishops in the movement, who include Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, Ugandan Archbishop Henry Orombi, Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen, and a number of UK bishops, including the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali.

Dr Williams said he would send out a pastoral letter to each of the GAFCON bishops as a first step, but added that the bridge-building process would need some "teasing out" in the coming months.

Reflecting on the achievements of the conference, the Archbishop said he "could not have prayed for more" success.

The Archbishop said he would convene a Primates' meeting in early 2009 to take the outcomes of the Lambeth Conference further.

"We may not have put an end to all our problems - but the pieces are on the board," he said.