Rowan Williams has not yet become Archbishop of Canterbury, but early this month he became a Druid.

In an open-air, early morning ceremony in Wales, Dr. Williams donned a white cloak and headdress, stood in a circle of stones in which a six-and-a-half-foot sword was unsheathed and sheathed, and was admitted into the Order of the White Robe of the Gorsedd of Bards. One observer dubbed the spectacle "Monty Pythonesque," while another said that Dr. Williams looked like "a frighteningly transgendered nun." For his part, Dr. Williams repudiated any suggestion that he had stooped to "dabbling in paganism."

When he becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Williams will require every bit of magic to hold the fractured Anglican denomination together.

There exists a massive split between those areas of the world where Anglicanism is growing (principally Asia and Africa) and those where it is dying (Europe and North America). The reality is that the Anglican Church, which has about 70 million members worldwide, is growing where it proclaims an orthodox and evangelical faith; it is dying where it proclaims a feckless, inclusive liberalism. Yet Dr. Williams unquestionably comes from the liberal branch of the Anglican Church, and his appointment has been met with suspicion in orthodox quarters, particularly on the issue that has sundered other Protestant denominations, namely homosexuality.

Dr. Williams has been widely reported (and has not denied) having ordained openly homosexual clergy.

In a question-and-answer session at a Christian university in Uganda last May, he managed to dance around the issue by telling students that "in different cultures in the world, the language people use to talk about sexuality becomes more and more different. The things that people take for granted in traditional societies are less and less taken for granted in societies in the North Atlantic world. How to talk across that gulf becomes harder and harder."

Well, it cannot be said that the future archbishop did not try to talk across the gulf -- and how he talked! The question posed was: "What is your view of homosexuality?" The parts I have quoted represent less than a tenth of the bafflegab that erupted from Dr. Williams by way of response. One source, incidentally, that Dr. Williams did not mention in his answer as shedding any light on the issue was scripture. Perhaps it is from such verbal prestidigitation that Dr. Williams's reputation as an intellectual derives.

Even before he assumes the See of Canterbury, there is some evidence to suggest that Dr. Williams recognizes that the orthodox elements of the Anglican Church may no longer be appeased just by words. The very day that his appointment was announced, Dr. Williams wrote to 36 primates acknowledging "some disgust . . . over my appointment because of what are believed to be my views on certain questions, in particular on human sexuality."

The letter went on to emphasize two points:

First, "an archbishop is not someone elected to fulfill a program or manifesto of his own devising, but to serve the whole communion";

Second, "the Lambeth resolution of 1998 declares clearly what is the mind of the overwhelming majority in the communion, and what the communion will and will not approve or authorize. I accept that any individual diocese or even province that officially overturns or repudiates this resolution poses a substantial problem for the sacramental unity of the communion."

This can only be interpreted as a warning to the Diocese of New Westminster, and its bishop, Michael Ingham.

In June, the Diocese of New Westminster voted by a 63-per-cent margin to create a liturgy blessing same-sex unions, and Bishop Ingham has approved it. After the vote, 12 priests, representing about 30 per cent of Anglican parishioners in the diocese, walked out in protest. Their status remains uncertain. In a letter to the (now lame duck) Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, they complained that Bishop Ingham has threatened to revoke their clergy licences.

The New Westminster controversy is likely to rank high on Dr. Rowan Williams's agenda when he takes office in October.

Unless, of course, there should turn out to be a uniquely Canadian solution. Suppose that the ultimate beneficiaries of Canadian Anglicanism were to object. (No, not the congregations, silly! I mean the First Nations, which stand to inherit Anglican buildings and properties through the residential-schools litigation.) Now, there is a voice that carries weight in the highest political, judicial and ecclesiastical councils.

If the New Westminster controversy threatens their future assets, then the Bard of Gorsedd will be pressed to find a very quick solution.
Ian Hunter is professor emeritus at the University of Western Ontario law school.