Williams said that being with the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops gave him a clearer understanding of its polity and their understanding of their baptismal covenant.

When asked about a possible split, Williams said he hoped the Anglican Communion would not split as this would be an admission of defeat. "God forbid.

"Our need for each other is very deep. The new younger churches need the experience of the older churches (like TEC and the Church of England). The newer churches need to learn from each other." Dr Williams said the Lambeth Conference is "necessary" and that smaller provinces should not be held hostage by the larger ones.

Williams urged the need for compromise.

Asked by a reporter if he had learned anything new that he did not know before about the TEC, Williams replied, "Yes, I have a clearer understanding of the polity of TEC and some of the assumptions that the bishops of the TEC make about the Church and its polity. Some have spoken to me about the baptismal covenant, as it works here, its importance, and how the concepts they take from the covenant make it easier to come to conclusions here that others cannot come too world-wide."

Pressed about why the Anglican Communion should stay together, Williams said it would be an admission of defeat if we were to break apart. "It could happen but God forbid that we cannot work together through these issues. The need we have for each other is very deep. I think the churches elsewhere need the experiences of the older churches and the older churches need the younger churches. We are not yet at the point where we are ready to admit defeat."

Questioned by a Reuters reporter about whether he saw any kind of compromise in his response to the DES requests, Mrs. Schori, the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop said, "We have already begun to make responses and I expect that over the weekend and in our plenary we will continue our response and hope to have a fill one by the end of the meeting."

Asked how encouraged he was by what he had seen, Dr. Williams said the Diocese of Louisiana and their efforts at reconstruction particularly moved him. "I am also encouraged by the patience of the bishops here and that we have been able to continue talking and listening."

When I asked the Archbishop of Canterbury if he was prepared to postpone the Lambeth Conference, at the request of the Archbishop of Nigeria and his House of Bishops, Williams responded saying, "It is not only from their quarter, others have asked the same. I am not persuaded. I am not sure that we could ever define what an adequate 'cooling off period' could look like. I do not want the next years spent in anxiety about when and whether Lambeth will occur. I feel the need to keep faith with the conference planners and with those across the communion for whom the regular meeting is a matter of nourishment and growth...particularly the smaller provinces that should not be held hostage by the political maneuvers of the larger ones.

"I have said to Archbishop Akinola that I feel meeting at Lambeth is a necessary meeting and it is the cross we are called to bear in order to see the resurrection at the other side however difficult it is for those involved."

Asked what his assessment of the current unity of the Communion was in light of this meeting, Williams replied, "I do not think this day and a half has made much of a difference. I think it will depend on what emerges by the end of the meeting. While some strong words have been exchanged, I have been struck by the desire to stay together I have seen here."

When questioned by the pansexual Episcopal organization Integrity about what word of hope he had for the GLBT baptized, Williams replied, "I would hope that a gay or lesbian person who would want to be a Christian would want affirmation and challenge and would want to be challenged as to what is the way to live life as a follower of Christ. I hope we are clarifying the belief that is being and has been expressed in a number of conferences that violence against gay and lesbian people is inexcusable.

"Certainly gay and lesbian people have a place in the church as do all the baptized. The debate is currently about the appropriate limits of pastoral care and the place gay and lesbian people may hold in the offices of the church. The question is how far the traditional theology of the church lets us move in that direction."

Firing off a second question, is healing available to those with homosexual inclinations, Williams responded, "That question presupposes that homosexual inclination is a disease. I do not assume that myself."

When a New York Times reporter asked the Archbishop about the address that Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer gave which stated in clear terms what some primates expect and is there room for compromise on the Communion side, Williams responded, "The primates said the DES is the place to start. Some would give a more robust interpretation, some less. That is the nature of a communique with common language. It has been represented sadly as a set of demands and deadlines. It was not that way. We are inevitably in a position of compromise. It would be a mistake to see DES as questions that must be answered without room for maneuver."

Question: Isn't this in large part about money? If the US church did not want to hold on to the property of the US conservative congregations, they would let them go. If the rest of the Communion did not need US money, would it not recognize a second province for the conservatives? Isn't this about money?

Williams: NO, if all of those factors were taken away, there would still be the various difficulties we face theologically. This is not about money.

A former parishioner of Truro Episcopal Church, Mary Ailes, asked the ABC about the one thing we have heard so often which is that we are free to go, but we have to leave the buildings behind. Some hear that as: 'We have no need of you but we need your buildings' what would you say to those who want to be Anglican but cannot in good conscience remain Episcopalian?

Williams said they should start looking for arrangements and situations within what is there because grace is given through even hopeless places. "Isn't God's grace still given sacramentally in the Episcopal Church? I would be slow to look for solutions elsewhere.

"It is distressing to see the levels of litigation. I would hope and pray that there is a possibility of stopping this from being dragged through the courts interminably."

Questioned by an Episcopal News Service reporter about (foreign) interventions throughout the Episcopal Church and if this troubled him, Williams replied, "Yes, there is a long history of unease about this in the Church. I would really, really prefer and hope to work for a local solution. My predecessor would not recognize illicit bishops I find myself in the same difficulty. More interventions make it difficult to find viable solutions."

END