The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has described the unity of his Church as “very fragile” but said he does not believe schism is inevitable.

In an interview for this month’s Time magazine, Dr Williams, aged 56, said he was“hopeful” but not “absolutely confident” that it could all be kept together. He said his task was to “try and maintain as long as possible the space in which people can have constructive disagreements, learn from each other, and try and hold that within an agreed framework of discipline and practice.”

In the interview, the cover for both the European and US editions and the Archbishop’s last before leaving for the US for the start of a three-month sabbatical, Dan Van Biema and Catherine Mayer describe his appearance as “benignly rumpled” with “wild black eyebrows” that “try to unseat his spectacles.”

Speaking at Lambeth Palace, London Dr Williams reflected on his attempts to hold togetherhis Communion of 76 million Anglicans after the “bizarre and puzzling” election of the openly-gay US Bishop Gene Robinson. He admitted that many of his old allies regarded his support for the Church’s conservative wing as a “betyrayal”. In spite of his own sympathies with the Church’s liberal catholic wing, Dr Williams said individual churches should not try to outpace the consensus of the Communion. He said: “Making decisions that will lose you friends, compromise people’s perception of your integrity - that’s very hard. On the other hand, that is only part of the reality. First and foremost, I’m a priest and a bishop.”

Dr Williams said he was “not recanting” his old arguments about homosexuality, when he appeared to support the case for active gay relationships. But his new job demanded that he express “where the consensus of our Church is,” rather than press for change. Dr Williams did not regard the debate over homosexuality as of “first-order” theological importance, but said so many Christians do that pro-gay measures must be preceded by a broad shift in consensus.

He argued that the US Church had failed at this and that Bishop Robinson’s election was perhaps dangerously myopic. He cited complaints from Egyptian Christians that their churches are being denounced - or, he hinted, threatened - by Muslim clergy because of same-sex relationships, even though the local Christians themselves have never accepted their validity.