If the Anglican Communion is again to seek "comprehension" in an ecumenically useful way, it must aspire to something more substantial than a fear of internal schism or the continued loss of parishes, communicants, and revenue. The Elizabethan Settlement originated in political necessity, but was also grounded from the outset in a determination to find agreement in "matters essential" while permitting diversity in "matters indifferent."

The principles of such a determination were set forth not in a mild policy statement but eventually in Richard Hooker's extraordinary Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. And it is to be hoped that all parties to the present dispute, including the primates, may similarly, after "listening," speak theologically with a renewed skill and vigor to the end of our doubtlessly different, covenanted needs.

In the meantime, and as one step out of the present crisis of authority and order, it falls to the primates to evaluate the answers given to their own questions by the American bishops. We therefore urge the Archbishop of Canterbury to convene the primates in a face-to-face meeting wherein a consensus response may be articulated, a consensus that may challenge the tendency of provinces to cluster in subsets of geographic affinity and ostensive opposition (e.g., 'North' and 'South'). Short of such a common voice, spoken confidently so as to halt the inertial momentum of broken and breaking relationships and promises, it seems evident that the prospects for Anglican obedience to the will of God-that all may be one, for the sake of the world-may be in considerable and imminent jeopardy.

Fr Will Brown
Fr Tony Clavier
Christopher Wells
Fr Dan Martins
Dr Ephraim Radner
Craig David Uffman