Consent key to healing divisions

Dr Rowan Williams insisted that there had to be protocols and conventions by which they recognised one another as churches, but that no one had the authority to impose rules.

He faces a difficult battle to unify following the Church of England's decision earlier this month to press ahead with the consecration of women bishops but without safeguards demanded by traditionalists.

Speaking to journalists at the once-in-a-decade Lambeth Conference, Dr Williams said: "I'm looking for consent, not coercion, but unless we do have something about which we consent, which we trust to resolve some of our differences, we shall be flying further apart.

"It's not as if we have co-existed without any impact on one another as local churches. There have to be protocols and conventions by which we recognise one another as churches, by which we understand and manage the exchange between ourselves.

"The difficulties we presently face have a lot to do with that recognition. No-one has the authority to impose. We have to do it by ourselves. That also means some may consent and some won't, and that in itself has implications."

Dr Williams was speaking as the Lambeth Conference started to reach the end of its first week at the University of Kent in Canterbury, attended by 670 bishops from around the world.

He said that despite the divisions facing the church, he had gained wide support.

"In the conversations that I have had with a wide variety of people among our ecumenical friends, the same message has come through - your issues, they say, are everyone's issues.

"It's not as if the Anglican Communion alone has problems about authority, problems with scriptures, problems about ethics, we all have these problems. You happen to be dealing with them in a pretty acute way. That's something that has come through and has been helpful and encouraging for some of us to hear."