Anglicans stand in the middle of “one of the most severe challenges” to have faced the Church in history, the Archbishop of Canterbury said last night.

Dr Rowan Williams, addressing 650 bishops at the ten-yearly Lambeth Conference, at the University of Kent in Canterbury, set out his vision for the Church. He said that there had never been a golden age for Anglicans and the Church because its very foundation was divided by dispute.

He said that the Church was at a “deeply significant turning point” and that the controversies over same-sex blessings and gay consecrations demanded a new approach.

Advocating the path of council and covenant, meaning the agreement of a unifying set of doctrines and principles to help to prevent discord, Dr Williams said: “We cannot ignore the fact that what is seen to be a new doctrine and policy about same-sex relations, one that is not the same as that of the vast majority at the last Lambeth Conference, is causing pain and perplexity.”

The history of the Lambeth Conference

Our historical guide traces the origins and issues that dominated the agenda at past Lambeth conferences

From the Times Archive, 1867

The first Lambeth Conference had its issues, but participants hoped future meetings would evoke the same fraternal spirit

• 1920 Conference: Birth Control

• 1958 Conference: Family Planning

• 1978 Conference: Ordination Of Women

Multimedia

• Full coverage of Lambeth Conference 2008

• Articles of faith: Ruth Gledhill's blog

• Video: Archbishop of Canterbury on Lambeth 2008

Times Archive, 1896: Qualities of an Archbishop

Womanly sympathy blended with masculine strength, grasp of principle with elasticity of detail

Related Links

• Bishops to give tribal politics a go

• Gays row 'weakens Christ's body'

• Gay US Bishop accuses opponents of idolatry

The Archbishop was speaking as the bishops emerged from three days of retreat and a service featuring Buddhist chants and grass-skirted Melanesian dancers in Canterbury Cathedral.

Before his talk a liberal bishop from Sri Lanka struck a lighthearted note when he suggested that a way to settle their theological differences could be a game of cricket. The Right Rev Duleep de Chickera, Bishop of Colombo, said: “Sri Lanka is a land of five world religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and cricket. Those of us who organised this conference planned an afternoon aside for cricket, and a game called baseball for the uninitiated.”

Today the bishops, who are reduced in number because 230 boycotted the event, will begin discussing their difficulties in indaba groups, based on a Zulu model of talk-based conflict resolution. When the conference ends in two weeks Dr Williams will produce a document to help bishops to promote unity when they return to the 38 provinces around the world. The Archbishop countered criticisms that the indaba process was an attempt to avoid tough decisions and would have the effect of replacing substance with process.

“To such people, I’d simply say, ‘How effective have the old methods really been?’. Earlier Lambeth Conferences issued weighty reports and passed scores of resolutions,” he said. “If you look at the resolutions that have been passed since 1867, you’ll find many of them, on really important subjects, have never been acted on.”

Dr Williams said: “We need to get beyond the reciprocal impatience that shows itself in the ways in which both liberals and traditionalists are ready – almost eager at times, it appears – to assume that the other is not actually listening to Jesus.

“We also know that how we think about that unity is itself affected by the urgency of the calls on our compassion and imagination; some sorts of division undoubtedly will seem a luxury in the face of certain challenges – as many Christians in Germany found when confronted by Hitler. We have to think and pray hard about what the essentials really are.”

The sermon marked the official start of the conference and confirmed the liberal direction of the Church. Bishop de Chickera, who was preaching at the personal invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, freely admitted the reality of the current divisions over gay consecrations and same-sex blessings. “The reality is that we are a wounded Anglican Communion,” he said. “Some of us are not here and that is an indication that all is not well.”

Speaking quietly but with passionate insistence, the slightly built bishop said: “Certainly the crisis is complex. It is not a crisis that can be resolved instantly and the journey ahead is a long and arduous one.”