Canterbury The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has made an impassioned plea for unity to the 650 bishops at the Lambeth Conference.

Dr Williams accused the bishops of too often “pouring scorn” on the witness of the Church, undermining its legitimacy as a result. He advocated the adoption of a covenant of belief to prevent disintegration, and called for bishops to be more generous to each other in the struggle to maintain unity of the 80-million strong Anglican Communion.

Dr Williams was delivering his second presidential address, as the conference enters its most crucial phase. The bishops will debate human sexuality this week and a draft of the covenant, a statement of belief and doctrine to which it is hoped the 38 provinces of the worldwide Church will sign up.

Already the Communion is fragmented, with 230 bishops boycotting the conference, and many of those signing up to the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans founded by the “alternative” conservative conference held in Jerusalem recently.