The debate on women priests has been reopened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, as he said that the Anglican Church may one day "think again" about the issue.

Dr Williams made clear that he remained a firm supporter of women's ordination, speaking a week before his first official audience with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome. He noted that "practically" he did not see how the Church's position could be reversed.

Dr Williams said the heated debate on the issue had "tested" his theological convictions.

He did not think the reform had "transformed or renewed the Church in spectacular ways", though neither had it "corrupted or ruined" it.

A senior insider noted: "The trouble with Rowan is that he doesn't understand that, as a leader, his comments are going to be seen as lukewarm and hurtful."

Traditionalists said that Dr Williams's measured assessment of the reform was in contrast to the enthusiastic claims of its advocates, who had predicted that it would trigger a major revival in the Church.

Dr Williams, a liberal Anglo-Catholic who considered becoming a Roman Catholic in his youth, admitted that the painful divisions that followed the 1993 decision by the General Synod to ordain women had tested his conviction that it was the right thing to do.

He said that his own view rested on the theological conviction that a baptised man and a baptised woman related to Jesus Christ in the same way, so that either could be called to ministry.

"So we did it because we thought it was right, knowing something of the price it would exact but not, I think, knowing just how difficult it would be," he said.

"Had we known how difficult it would be, would it have stopped us? I suspect not. And that sounds a bit blunt, but I think there was sufficient depth of theological conviction in the Church of England to feel that it would somehow be wrong and no real compliment to the Roman Catholic Church if we held back and said, 'Well, you know, we won't hurt your feelings'."