They really couldn’t have chosen a better acronym.

“To be attacked by the enemy is not a bad thing but a good thing”.

Nothing I suspect could be further from the nature of Rowan Williams than to think of Peter Akinola as an enemy whose scorn is to be welcomed. Nevertheless, the separation of a reactionary faction from within the worldwide Anglican communion - and they are reactionaries, there is no other word for it - provides a clear opportunity for the definition and defence of a progressive line. It should be possible, although it is far from sufficient, to affirm homosexual equality; to demand that women and gay men (and, inevitably, gay women, although nobody seems nearly so bothered about them for some reason) be enabled to use their gifts as bishops; to refuse theological simplification and high-handedness in dealings with other faiths; to seek to be a church of (and by) grace and not of (and by) law. Let the conservative evangelicals pursue their messianic fantasies (“if you receive an SOS from anywhere in the world we will move in” - who is he, Batman? I suppose this could be termed illiberal interventionism). We will see soon enough what lies behind their urge to exclude, stigmatize and punish.

Well, the Lambeth Conference is likely to be interesting this year. It’s not often you can say that.