An Anglican unity of sorts, but bring on Lambeth (and Jensen)

[...] What emerged was a draft of an Anglican covenant which, says the landmark Windsor report of 2004 - which was commissioned to find a way out of the present dilemma - is intended to give "explicit articulation and recognition to the principles of co-operation and interdependence (sometimes called 'the bonds of affection') which hold the Anglican Communion together".

But it is hard to see how any such mechanism would be any more binding on the independent dioceses of the Anglican Communion than the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution that rejected homosexuality as "incompatible with scripture" and said the church could not "advise the legitimising of same-sex unions nor the ordination of those involved in such unions".

That resolution, remember, was approved by an overwhelming vote of bishops (526 to 70) only to be ignored within a matter of years by some of the same Americans who had agreed to it. In any event, the Anglican covenant has now to be considered by Anglican bishops worldwide before next year's Lambeth Conference. That means more delay.

And it will be at this Lambeth gathering, rather than at a meeting of primates, that the strongest divisions between liberals and conservatives are likely to emerge. In Tanzania, for instance, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall - a moderate - represented the province of Australia; at Lambeth next year, Archbishop Peter Jensen - an outspoken opponent of homosexual ordination and blessing same-sex unions - will represent the Diocese of Sydney. Read more