Lambeth Palace has officially responded to the extreme criticism that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has received from Primates regarding his leadership of the Anglican Communion over the issue of homosexuality in the Church.

|PIC1|The official response was published late on Friday Nov. 18th, and appears to rebuke the public comments made by Anglican Global South Primates, publicly released on its website. Lambeth Palace stated they "serve little purpose" if the comments were an attempt to foreclose the debate on the matter.

Lambeth Palace re-emphasised its commitment to a process which “all the primates committed themselves and their provinces in the Primates’ response to the Windsor Report”.

Earlier this week a letter, accusing Dr Williams of failing in his role of leadership over the Communion over the issue of homosexuality, was stated as being backed by 17 Anglican Primates. This appeared to be an overwhelming figure of almost half the leaders of the 38 Anglican provinces.

The letter suggested that Dr Williams had been unacceptably reluctant to impose his authority on the issue and to take a majority conservative stance on the Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA) and the Anglican Church of Canada. In addition, more recently Dr Williams has come under increasing criticism after the Church of England’s House of Bishops agreed to a controversial view on Britain’s new Civil Partnerships Act for clergy.

The letter rebuking Dr Williams was published on the Global South Anglican website on Wednesday evening, and it urged Dr Williams to change his personal liberal views on homosexuality.

|QUOTE|However, Nov. 17th, at least two of the names that had appeared as signatories to the letter when it was published reacted angrily to its public posting.

One said that he had seen a draft of the letter in a meeting earlier this month at the Global South conference in Egypt, however, he stated that he had expressed his unhappiness of the threatening tone used in the letter.

The Primate of the Southern Cone in Southern America, Archbishop Gregory Venebles revealed that he had not been consulted before the letter was issued. He said, “A number of us are scandalised that a private letter should have been made public in this way.”

The letter had stated that Dr Williams’ “personal dissent” from the consensus of the wider Church that “same-sex is unacceptable” had blocked him being able to take the necessary actions to deal with the US and Canadian Churches appropriately.

|TOP|The letter stated, “The essence of libertinism is the severing of the grace of Christ from His moral commandments.”

This, the letter said, was “at the heart of our present divisions”.

In a statement also received yesterday, the President Bishop of Jerusalem, the Most Rev Clive Handford told how he had in no way given permission for his name to be associated with the letter.

In addition, at least two other conservative primates are understood to be furious that the letter had been publicly published without their prior knowledge.

According to Ekklesia, Bishop Handford said: “It is most regrettable, and in no way helpful to the Church’s mission, that a personal letter, which should have been confidential, was broadcast in this way.

|AD|“I attended the Global South Encounter in Egypt with some reluctance, but felt that it was appropriate to be there because the meeting was taking place in the Province of which I am President Bishop. I wished, further, to be supportive of my colleague, the Bishop in Egypt, who was the host of the Encounter.”

Handford also gave the comment, “I was not able to be present for the whole of the programme, arriving after the early sessions and leaving before the end. While I saw a first draft of the letter, I was not involved in any subsequent discussion of it. Several other Primates shared my unease. In no way did I give permission for my name to be associated with the letter,” according to Ekklesia.

Lambeth Palace’s official response is recorded in full below:

“The Archbishop of Cantebrury has made it clear since before the time of his enthronement that neither he nor anyone else has a mandate to change the teaching of the Church by fiat. He is committed to the process to which all the primates committed themselves and their provinces in the Primates' response to the Windsor report, contained in the communiqué following the meeting in Dromantine.

“If this letter is a contribution to that process of debate, then it is to be welcomed, however robust. If it is an attempt to foreclose that debate, it would seem to serve very little purpose indeed.”

The full recording of the controversial letter released by the Global South Primates can also be viewed by clicking here.