Williams urges Anglicans to Resolve Differences

If the Anglican Communion resolves its differences enough to avoid schism, "it will have done something for the entire Christian community", the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams told reporters in New Orleans on Friday.

Dr Williams has been engaged in key talks in the city with US Episcopal bishops since Thursday, addressing in particular divisions over homosexuality.

"The need we have for each other is very deep, it came across yesterday in much of the discussion in our first session," he said at Friday's news conference, according to the Episcopal News Service.

"Many bishops spoke of their awareness of the need for Christian community elsewhere in the world ... [of] the need to understand something not just about the experience of poverty and privation in those areas but also of young churches, finding their way in mission," he said.

Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, told media, "It has been a privilege for us to meet together in this way and to have the physical presence from other members of the Anglican Communion; that's been very important".

During the press conference, Dr Williams made clear that the Dar es Salaam communiqué was not an ultimatum. Primates meeting in Dar es Salaam in February had asked the US Church to respond to their request that they put a stop to ordaining homosexual bishops and blessing same-sex marriages by 30 September.

"Despite what has been claimed, there is no ultimatum involved," Dr Williams said in a statement.

"The primates asked for a response by September 30 simply because we were aware that this was the meeting of the House likely to be formulating such a response. The ACC and Primates Joint Standing Committee will be reading and digesting what the Bishops have to say, and will let me know their thoughts on it early next week."

The communiqué is "a place to start", he said. "Some primates would give a more robust interpretation of the demands, some less. It has been presented as a set of demands and indeed intrusions and impositions; I don't think that's what the primates had in mind and that means we are inevitably in the business of compromise. What is brought before us will be scrutinised, thought about, reflected, digested."

He added, "I hope these days will result in a constructive and fresh way forward for all of us."

A formal response to the Dar es Salaam communiqué is now expected to be made by February.

Dr Williams has also made several pastoral visits to areas of New Orleans still recovering from 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

At a Thursday night service, Dr Williams preached "gratitude" and encouraged listeners to re-build New Orleans into a God-fearing city.

"In the work that is done for the reconstruction of this city's life, for the renewal and restoration and recentering in God for the life of these people of this great city, let's pray that gratitude will be a part of it," he said.