All 38 Primates of the Anglican Communion met at St Patrick’s Church, Armagh, Northern Ireland on 22nd February evening for an Evensong Service to mark the opening of the five-day conference. The sermon was delivered by Dr Rowan Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury, and in it he stressed on the significance of a peace-making church through the sacrifice of Christ, urging a halt to the warring over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion.
Following up the discussion on the Windsor Report in last week’s General Synod of the Church of England, the critical Primates meeting is due to give a conclusive response to the Windsor Report. The Report aims to resolve the current rift in the communion over gay bishop ordination and same-sex blessings carried out by the US Episcopal Church (ECUSA).
The main passage of yesterday’s sermon was "you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." In the history of Israelites, the priest was the one who gave thanks; made sacrifices; made atonement; made peace between God and the world. He reminded the Primates that human beings alone cannot make lasting peace between Earth and Heaven, they offer sacrifices again and again for their sins. However, Jesus Christ is the great high priest forever, who laid down his life for us on the cross as a sacrifice and restored the relationship between God and the world, making lasting peace in both Heaven and Earth.
He told the Primates that all of them are called to be instruments of Christ's peace. The Church should be a place where prayer, praise and thanksgiving are made through Christ. He reminded that "Christ has made peace and our life rests on what he has done and on nothing else", therefore, "our own efforts at peacemaking and witnessing to peace in world and Church alike must not be characterised by anxious striving, by desperate activism, by the passion to get it all sorted and all right."
Through this, Archbishop Williams hinted at the criticism towards the awkwardness with which Anglicans on either side of the debate over homosexuality have treated each other. He also rebuked them for their "activism" and "determination to get an immediate resolution".
He said, "How readily we turn to anxious striving, as if Christ had not died and been raised. How awkwardly we sit with one another to pray together and worship together. How easy it is for us to close our doors."
Archbishop Williams once again emphasised the commission of the Primates: "To be a kingdom of priests then, is to be a people through whose friendship God can be seen...we learn to be friends of Jesus Christ and friends with one another."
He also renewed the calling of the Anglican Communion: "The call to our Anglican Communion to be a kingdom of priests, a priestly people. Those among whom the prayer of Christ may be seen and heard. The peace that Christ has won may be tangible. And to be a friendly home for a world of homeless people lost in unhappiness, in error, and sin."
Finally he comforted all Primates: "And again and again in the midst of our tensions, our struggles and uncertainties, it matters more than we can readily say that we should let ourselves be drawn together by that pillar of fire, to make prayers and supplications and give thanks in the power of the Christ who is among us."
The seemingly tolerant attitude of Archbishop Rowan Williams towards homosexuality in the Church has outraged the conservative wing. Conservatives demand the Church to address the issue in a theological context and take disciplinary actions if the ECUSA fails to repent.