The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has compared debates in the General Synod of the Church of England to scenes from the film Groundhog Day.

In a wake-up call to the legislative body of the Church of England, Dr Rowan Williams told the 476 members to start behaving as though they really do believe in God.

He said that synod members had to exercise their ingenuity and skill by seeing how they could "get out of God's way when he is moving." He continued: "That depends a great deal on our working as a synod in a way that suggests we really do believe that God exists."

Dr Williams was delivering his presidential address at Church House, Westminster, where the newly-elected synod is meeting to debate terrorism, mission, church property and finance and other legal and pastoral issues.

Although not on the official agenda this week, women bishops and homosexuality have been discussed at fringe meetings, as have divestment from Israel and relations with the Jewish community.

Dr Williams said: "Synod may be a legislative body, it may be a sort of parliament, it may feel variously like a debating society, an amateur dramatic society, an interminable revising committee or a scene from Groundhog Day, but before and beyond all of this, it is part of our Church's way of discerning God's purpose for us, and it is utterly meaningless if we lose sight of that."

He said the "feel" of the synod could contribute positively or negatively to the feel of the whole Church. "An inward-looking synod, an anxious synod, a suspicious, ungenerous or legalistic synod, will have an impact on the kind of Church we become in the next five years."

This was an age "cursed by over-management and regulation" and synod was not exempt from that "general curse", he said.

"We have to beware of poisoning the wells by doing our business with suspicion and hostility or lack of mutual respect."

Referring to the two most contentious issues in the Anglican Church at present, Dr Williams continued: "We are painfully aware of the quarrels over sexuality, and the tensions and complications around how we handle the question of women's ordination as bishops."

To move away from the "demeaning caricatures" on both sides, every member of synod should make to contact with someone in another province who did not share their views.

Dr Williams, who will visit Pakistan next week to meet earthquake survivors and Muslim religious leaders and scholars, said: "The sexuality debate is infinitely complicated by high levels of mutual ignorance and anxiety between North and South, and by perceptions, not always unfair, about the uncritical use of power and influence by older and wealthier churches."

Other solutions included talking to and even praying with opponents, and debates where the synod reflected on contentious issues rather than voting on them. "We as a synod need to show that theology doesn't kill you. Indeed, it can be a source of life and health."

The Archbishop indicated that he was seeking a structural solution to the issue of women bishops, due to be debated by the synod next February. Theologians and canon lawyers are struggling to find a way to ordain women bishops without splitting the Church.

Dr Williams said he was seeking a structure along the lines of "interactive pluralism" to allow for women bishops. This would in effect create two "streams" of churchmanship but would be a step short of legalising the "third province" alongside Canterbury and York that some traditionalists have demanded.

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