Williams plea on gay bishops rules

On the final day of the Lambeth Conference, Dr Rowan Williams put forward the idea of a "Covenanted future" involving a "global church of inter-dependent communities".

The once-a-decade meeting of worldwide bishops has been dominated by the issue of gay clergy and same sex unions, which has threatened to tear the Church apart. Disharmony has seen 200 bishops - a quarter of those invited - stage a boycott.

Some Anglican churches in North America have carried out blessings for same sex couples, in contravention of agreements not to do so, or moratoria.

"If the North American churches don't accept the need for moratoria then to say the least we are no further forward," Dr Williams said. "The idea of a Covenant which includes as many of them as possible becomes more fragile and that means that as a Communion we continue to be in grave peril."

He said it was often assumed that the blessing of same sex marriages or the ordination of gay bishops was simply a human rights issue. "That's an assumption I can't accept because I think the issue about what conditions a church lays down for a blessing have to be shaped by its own thinking and its own praying."

Before the Lambeth Conference a "breakaway meeting" took place in Jerusalem, and it is many of the more conservative, often African, bishops who attended the Global Anglican Future Conference who chose to boycott Lambeth.

The division in the Church was widened in 2003 by the ordination of the Rt Rev Gene Robinson, the Bishop of New Hampshire in the US. He was not invited to Lambeth by Dr Williams because of the controversy over his appointment.

Giving the presidential address on the final day of the two-week conference, held at the University of Kent in Canterbury, Dr Williams said: "In these days together we have not overcome our problems or reinvented our structures - that will still take time."

But he said there was a recognition, "though still with many questions" that a Covenant is needed. He said he intended to convene a meeting of primates as early as possible next year. "We may not have put an end to all our problems - but the pieces are on the board," he said.