Letter from Archbishop Eames to the Archbishop of Canterbury on the Windsor Report 2004

 — Oct. 18, 200418 oct. 2004

The Most Revd and Rt Hon the Archbishop of Canterbury
Lambeth Palace

14 October 2004

Dear Archbishop Rowan

I have the honour to submit to you the Report of the Lambeth Commission on Communion, entitled ‘The Windsor Report 2004‘. In the last twelve months, we have laboured hard and prayerfully listened to all shades of opinion across the Anglican Communion, and have been able to come to a common mind on a diagnosis for the current situation in the life of the Communion, and the remedies which could be offered.

We have made a remarkable journey. The Commission members had strongly held and differing opinions on both the presenting issues and their underlying causes, and we have not been afraid to discuss those views openly and honestly in our work. But equal to all of this is our central belief that the forty-four churches of the Anglican Communion belong together in witness and common mission for the sake of the Gospel, and this has helped us to develop a set of unanimous recommendations.

As a hallmark of our endeavour, we believed that it was important to mirror the values of the Gospel in our work – to look for healing not division, for pastoral reconciliation and not punishment, to look to our shared witness not only in our mission but in the processes by which our Communion works out the current tensions.

The report you have before you is the result of our labours. It offers analysis of all that, under God, our Communion can be, and of the underlying nature of our present divisions. It makes proposals for the future of the Communion, in particular for the exercise of your own ministry, and invites all members to the Communion into a process of reconciliation on the issues that divide us most sharply.

I should be grateful if you would lay this report before our fellow primates at the earliest opportunity. We are asking much of them and their provinces, but with the help of God, I believe that there is every reason to be optimistic about the future that we can share.

Yours very sincerely,

+ Robin Armagh
The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland

Posted: Oct. 18, 2004 • Permanent link: ecumenism.net/?p=9337
Categories: ACNS, Communiqué • In this article: Anglican Communion, human sexuality, Lambeth Commission Transmis : 18 oct. 2004 • Lien permanente : ecumenism.net/?p=9337
Catégorie : ACNS, Communiqué • Dans cet article : Anglican Communion, human sexuality, Lambeth Commission