THE Archbishop of Canterbury called for the Church of England to unite yesterday after the divisions over gay bishops to wrest “a gift out of what seems a curse”.

In a sermon to members of the General Synod at York Minster, Dr Rowan Williams denied that he had acted out of cowardice in persuading the homosexual canon Dr Jeffrey John to withdraw as the next Bishop of Reading.

Dr Williams was preaching the day after Peter Tatchell and other gay-rights campaigners had disrupted the meeting of the synod to protest over the Jeffrey John affair.

He recognised that a comparison could be made between himself and King Herod, the biblical King of Judaea who acceded to the wishes of Salome that the head of John the Baptist be brought to her on a platter.

Dr Williams, attending the General Synod as Archbishop for the first time, persuaded Dr John to sign a letter of withdrawal that had been drafted for him during a six-hour meeting at Lambeth Palace nine days ago.

The Archbishop had been subject to intense pressure from evangelicals in Britain and abroad, warning him of schism were the ordination of Dr John to go ahead in Westminster Abbey in October.

But he indicated that the comparison with Herod was wrong and insisted that his decision had been made for the sake of a higher unity. He used the analogy of God creating unity between Heaven and Earth through the sacrifice of His Son on the Cross.

“Unity here is not consensus or tactical alliance or denial. It is renewed life, given in the passion of Christ,” he said.

Giving the clearest indication yet of why he had acted as he had, Dr Williams also referred to St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where the Apostle appeals to warring Christians to unite around the unity of their faith. “What is striking is that Paul appeals for unity not as a way of denying conflict or smoothing over the surface, but because the conflicts and failures of the churches are the opportunity for wresting a gift out of what seems a curse,” he said.

Dr Williams preached immediately after synod members listened to how King Herod commanded the execution after Salome demanded “the head of John the Baptist” from him in his palace.

That too was a row about sex. John had criticised Herod because he had married his brother’s wife Herodias. By coincidence, the Church of England’s lectionary had decreed that the set gospel reading for churches yesterday was the passage from Mark vi that describes how Herod was trapped into sacrificing John.

Dr Williams said: “Today’s gospel of course prompts thoughts of other kinds of peace and unity.”

He continued: “There is indeed a unity born of cowardice — as plenty of commentators have remarked — and Herod’s execution of the Baptist is no doubt something that brings him a faintly guilty but relieved sense that peace is restored in the palace.”

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