Rowan Williams to challenge infighting over gays and women bishops

The Archbishop of Canterbury will fight threats of disintegration in the Church of England with what is expected to be a forceful intervention at the General Synod today.

Dr Rowan Williams is determined to challenge the increasingly bitter infighting sparked by disagreements over women bishops in England and gay ordinations in the US.

In one of the most important presidential addresses of his seven-year archiepiscopacy, described by one insider as a “brilliant piece of work”, the Archbishop is expected to salvage hope from the despair felt by many Anglicans over pressure brought by the liberal, evangelical and Catholic wings of the established Church.

Anglican leaders are increasingly concerned at the way that the Church’s tussles over women and gays is hindering its mission to proclaim the gospel to the nation. The synod was told yesterday that the Church of England was suffering a “testosterone deficit” caused by a “seriously out-of- line” gender balance. The synod heard anecdotal evidence suggesting that women are playing an increasingly important role in the Church, and when it comes to attendance bishops should be actively pursuing missions directed at men.

Dr Williams’s address comes after a decision to proceed with the ordination of women bishops with no significant concessions to traditionalists.

He is also expected to address a contentious debate tomorrow about a motion to recognise the new conservative evangelical Anglican Church in North America, which was created by traditionalists who have been deposed or broken away in the dispute over gay ordination in the US.

Lorna Ashworth, a lay synod member from the Diocese of Chichester, is calling for the Church of England to afford the new church recognition within the Anglican Communion. This would be no more than symbolic but it would add weight to any formal request from the new church to become an extra province within the Anglican Communion.

Bishops have put up an alternative motion designed to wreck Ms Ashworth’s motion by stalling it for the foreseeable future.

Dr Williams’s speech will come as the Church faces losing thousands of laity and clergy from conservative and Catholic traditions over the issue of women bishops. When the synod agreed two years ago to proceed with the legislation to consecrate women, Dr Williams was among the bishops who voted against a simple measure and wanted concessions to keep Anglo-Catholics and evangelicals on board. Traditionalists hoped for similar arrangements to when women were ordained priests in 1994, and the synod set up a system of “flying bishops” to care for traditionalists. But under the proposals announced yesterday after months of debate, the Church has been unable to find a way to make provision for traditionalists without turning women bishops into “second-class” consecrations.