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In his first year of office, in what must be the steepest learning curve any Archbishop of Canterbury has ever faced, Williams must find a way through the conflicting claims. Though Williams is acclaimed as a theologian and inventive thinker, many believe that even his gifts cannot rise to the challenge. Criticized as a liberal, he has in contrast sided with conservatives and evangelicals in the major conflicts that have rocked his eight months in office.

In July he talked his close friend, the Rev. Canon Jeffrey John, a leading homosexual clergyman, out of taking up the post of Bishop of Reading after a chorus of protest from evangelical bishops and clergy in the Church of England. In recent days, he has sent clear signals to the Vatican, to the primates of the Global South, and to the media that his current sympathies lie with traditional teaching, despite his earlier writings as a theologian that loving, faithful homosexual relationships were not ruled out by the Bible.

Every journalist says Williams is impossible to read. But by the end of the two-day summit at Lambeth Palace on Thursday, the world will know whether the 38 primates of the Anglican Communion are holding their last meeting together, signalling the end of the Anglican Communion or the first of a new era in which the Global South finally rises to the challenge of leading this worldwide denomination.

Andrew Carey is a columnist for The Church of England Newspaper.

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See also today's Weblog, "Where Else to Go For News and Analysis of the Anglican Primates' Meeting."

Last week, Christianity Today associate editor Douglas LeBlanc filed reports from the American Anglican Council meeting in Dallas. His dispatches included "Conservative Episcopalians Challenge Church Politics as Usual," "Reimagining Anglican Bonds of Affection," and "Florida Bishop Defies Episcopal Church Head."

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October (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47