Archbishop defends letter: CEN 1.04.08 p 3.

Face to face conversation free from pressure groups and partisan slogans was the goal of the 2008 Lambeth Conference, the Archbishop told a national radio audience on Dec 19.

Asked by BBC 5 Live‘s Simon Mayo to give the “gist” of his Advent letter, Dr. Williams said he “wanted to encourage bishops around the world to come to the Lambeth Conference next year because I think that it is better to meet face to face and talk about these things rather than dealing with them at right angles or through other people or through slogans.”

He said he intended his Dec 14 Advent letter to “set out what I thought were the basic minimum conditions for staying in a close relationship as a world wide church.  I wanted to suggest some practical steps in the next few months to make some conversation happen and get some facilitated meeting moving” among the Anglican Communion’s disparate factions.

Plans to hold a pre-Lambeth meeting for conservatives did not signal disloyalty, Dr. Williams said, as such a meeting “would not have any official status as far as the Communion is concerned.”

He noted that at this stage roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of the bishops invited had responded to the invitation, many of whom were bishops whom he considered to come from the conservative side of the church aisle.

Asked to explain his statement that not coming to Lambeth would be a “refusal of the cross – and so of the resurrection,” Dr. Williams said “people who refuse to meet and honestly confront their difficulties together are walking away from the cross.”

“Spiritually speaking I think if you don’t want to talk to someone with whom you really disagree with then that suggest some kind of fear which isn’t really compatible with faith.  I want to challenge that,” Dr. Williams said.

Global South primates contacted by The Church of England Newspaper said they were mulling over Dr. Williams words, with some stating they would be sending him private responses, while others expected a public statement of some sort to be prepared sometime after Christmas.

However, Dr. Williams’ denying the cross imagery touched a nerve for some Global South leaders, who noted that it was ironic that Dr. Williams placed such a premium on having face to face meetings of bishops, yet had stoutly resisted all calls for a primates’ meeting.

The Bishop of Fort Worth agreed with Dr. Williams’ observation in the Advent letter that it was “extremely unlikely” that further meetings would produce a “more substantial consensus”.  However, Bishop Jack Iker said he was perplexed by Dr. Williams’ conclusion that “professionally facilitated conversations” might achieve a “better level of mutual understanding.”

“This hope is in vain,” Bishop Iker said.  “The best assistance that the Archbishop can offer to address the situation in [the Episcopal Church] is to host a mediation that seeks a negotiated settlement for separation, without rancor or litigation,” he said.