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"The Anglican Communion is a wonderful family, but they've emphasized family to the seeming neglect of many other factors, one of which is truth," Harmon said. "The family only has real unity if it has unity in truth."

The leader of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, appealed to both sides to maintain unity and avoid a "rush to judgment."

The report offers "neither easy nor simple solutions to real and demanding challenges," Williams said in a statement. "If we are serious about meeting those challenges, as I know we are, then we have to do all we can to continue to travel this road together."

The report will now be received by several Anglican bodies, including American bishops in January. It would take months, and probably years, for the recommendations in the report to be formally adopted.

Part of the challenges facing the Communion stem from its looseknit structure, with each of its 38 provinces acting autonomously. The panel chided the North American churches for introducing gay bishops and same-sex unions — the report called both a type of theological "novelty"— without considering how either would affect the larger Communion.

"In our view, those involved did not pay due regard in the way they might and … should have done to the wider implications of the decisions they were making and the actions they were taking," the panel said.

In an effort to beef-up accountability, the panel proposed creating a "Council of Advice" to aid Williams in dealing with controversy. The report, however, said it did not endorse "the accumulation of formal power." Eames, speaking to reporters, said "Anglicans don't want a central curia."

Currently, the only "instruments of unity" within the Communion are the archbishop of Canterbury, the once-every-decade Lambeth Conference of bishops, the Anglican Consultative Council and an annual retreat of top Anglican bishops, or primates.

The panel's second, more controversial, proposal would create an "Anglican Covenant" that would have "no binding authority" other than a member church's commitment to uphold it. A proposed draft said bishops could not "be the cause or focus of division and strife in their church or elsewhere in the Communion," and would compel each province to only act in the "common good" of the wider Communion.

"What touches all should be approved by all," the draft said.

The proposal came under immediate scrutiny from Griswold, the leader of the U.S. church who supported Robinson and presided at his consecration. "This notion will need to be studied with particular care," he said.

"Throughout our history we have managed to live with the tension between a need for clear boundaries and for room in order that the Spirit might express itself in fresh ways in a variety of contexts," he said.

Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh, moderator of the conservative Anglican Communion Network, said the report leaves the Communion open to more Episcopal "misbehavior" without any real sanctions.

"The report assumes the Episcopal Church is healthy enough to police itself, and for 30 years the Episcopal Church has been doing its own thing," Duncan said. "For this report to take a gentle and even genteel view that the Episcopal Church will turn back is unrealistic."

Ron Csillag contributed to this report from Toronto.

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Our other coverage of the Windsor report includes:

Disappointed Anglican Conservatives Mull Options, Threaten Revolt | Americans must belong to Episcopal Church, report says (Oct. 19, 2004)

Weblog: Anglican Report Treats Conservatives Harsher than Liberals | News, predictions that commission would sanction Episcopal Church were greatly exaggerated. (Oct. 18, 2004)

Anglican Primates Respond to the Windsor Report | What church leaders from around the world are saying about the Eames Commission and the future of Anglicanism. (Oct. 18, 2004)

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October (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48