On the eve of a critical meeting of the 38 primates who will attempt to save the worldwide Anglican Church from schism, Dr Williams warned the General Synod of the Church of England yesterday that “misunderstanding, rupture and damage” could follow from an insistence on pursuing the liberal gay agenda.

He described the “burden” of trying to reconcile the warring parties when they no longer even spoke a common language.

The 38 primates meet next week in Northern Ireland to discuss the crisis, which has divided the Church already and led provinces in the global South to declare themselves in broken communion with the US and Canada.

The crisis, which could yet lead to a formal schism between the provinces of the largely liberal West and of the largely evangelical developing world, blew up after the New Westminster Diocese in Canada authorised same-sex blessings and the Episcopal Church of the US consecrated the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

The primate of the Episcopal Church of the United States, the Most Rev Frank Griswold, has apologised for the consequences of his Church’s action in consecrating Gene Robinson, but not for the action itself.

The synod yesterday gave its backing to Dr Williams and called for the primates “to secure unity” in the light of the recommendations of the Windsor Report.

Dr Williams will chair next week’s meeting and his speech was a clear indication that he would put his weight behind the Windsor Report and call for the US Primate to go further, even though Bishop Griswold is a personal friend.

The report, which was published last autumn, was set up by Dr Williams to resolve the crisis.

It called on the US Church “to express its regrets”, castigated the 53 bishops who supported Bishop Robinson’s appointment and proposed a new unity “covenant” to which all 38 provinces would sign up and which would prevent future unilateral actions of the kind taken by the North American churches.

Dr Williams, whose personal sympathies lie with the liberal wing but who has taken the orthodox line over homosexuals for the sake of Church unity, said that the ultimate fact of the Church was “our capacity to live sacrificially for the sake of each other”.

He said the Church should “take a firm stand against the erosion of objective morality and biblical truth.” Dr Williams, who has been accused by both sides in the debate of setting unity before truth, told the synod that his dilemma was that he was not able wholly to separate truth from unity.

Later last night he called on the Church of England to continue to urge the Government to put pressure on the US to sign up to environmental undertakings. He also bade an emotional farewell to Dr David Hope, the Archbishop of York, who briefly attended the General Synod for the last time before his departure at the end of this month to become vicar of Ilkley in the Bradford Diocese.

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