Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, yesterday voiced his frustration at the divisions that have racked the Church of England, and the worldwide Anglican communion which he also leads, over the issue of homosexuality.
Speaking during a question and answer session at the Greenbelt Christian festival, attended by more than 15,000 people at Cheltenham race course over the bank holiday weekend, the archbishop spoke of the rawness of the anger of the factions in the church.
Some evangelicals, particularly in England and the US, have threatened in effect to split the communion over their opposition to the promotion of homosexuals in the priesthood.
Dr Williams, who came under immediate fire on his appointment two years ago because of his previous liberalism on the issue and his admission that he had himself ordained a gay priest, told his audience: "It is not so much that we have disagreements in the church - that happens - it is more to do with how those disagreements are conducted ... while we may disagree, we need to learn how to do it with a bit more grace."
The archbishop, who has even been condemned by some hardliners as a heretic and a non-Christian, added: "Quite a lot of people had to learn that the Church of England was not just them.
"What I heard from both sides of the controversy was that 'We thought the Church of England was us and people like us, and maybe one or two others who did not matter too much'. There was a sense on both sides of shock and dispossession."
Jeffrey John, the gay but celibate theologian appointed last year as suffragan bishop of Reading before a row which culminated in the archbishop forcing him to stand down, was another speaker at the festival. Dr John, the dean of St Albans, confined his remarks to the less contentious subject of miracles.
Dr Williams spoke of the part email technology played in the row, alerting campaigners across the world and stimulating some African church leaders, in particular, to voice their opposition to what they saw as the elevation of decadent and sinful clerics. Emails, the archbishop said, encouraged rapid and non-nuanced responses.
The archbishop's remarks contributed to one of his most outspoken public interven tions in the crisis. In answer to other questioning, he admitted he could not always live up to people's expectations.
And - in words that may anger some fundamentalists who believe heaven is reserved exclusively for Christians - Dr Williams said he believed that Muslims could also be eligible.
"Yes, in so far as neither I nor any other Christian controls access to heaven," he told a questioner. "It is possible for God's spirit to cross boundaries. I say this as someone who is quite happy to say that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through him. But how God leads to people through Jesus to heaven - that can be quite varied, I think."
A commission headed by the Primate of All Ireland, Robin Eames, is expected to report in October about the future structure of Anglicanism following the homosexual controversy.
Commission members - mainly bishops and senior churchmen - have been meeting throughout the year to try to find a way through the crisis.