Archbishop of Canterbury appeals for unity over gay clergy and women bishops

From The London Guardian-

Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, attempted today to bind together the warring factions of the Church of England by appealing for both conservatives and liberals to show mutual tolerance and understanding over issues of gay equality and women bishops.

He also placed the church firmly against any liberalisation of the law on assisted dying, describing the granting of a right to die as a moral mistake and an upsetting of the balance of freedoms.

However, his warning to Anglicans not to demonise opponents was immediately undermined by a pugnacious statement by the archbishop of Uganda, Henry Orombi, who, with immaculate timing, insisted on his church's support for homophobic legislation under consideration by the Ugandan parliament.

Williams, who described such legislation as infamous and repugnant, insisted in his address to the Church of England's General Synod, meeting in London: "Our job is not to secure purity but to find ways of deciding such contested issues that do not simply write off the others in the debate as negligible, morally or spiritually unserious or without moral claims."

But the archbishop stoutly defended the recent opposition of bishops in the Lords to the government's equality legislation, seeking to define how far the church could discriminate, particularly against gay people, in making secular appointments.

More here-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/09/archbishop-canterbury-general-synod-address