It is so sad to see the news that the Church of England is heading inexorably for a major schism between the 'liberal' and the 'conservatives' over gay clergy and women bishops. It's a pity they can't emulate their fellow label-carriers in national government. In fact it is a damning indictment on the Church that a secular body is more able to compromise than one for whom love is the only reason for its being.

That being said, I am not altogether convinced that compromise is possible and, if that is the case, why waste time and stress trying to achieve it? God doesn't do compromise - you believe or you don't - agnosticism is not really a valid option. CS Lewis argued that case far more succinctly than I in 'Mere Christianity'. I am/was looking to Dr Rowan Williams as a leader, not merely a negotiator, in this instance.

I can see that he wants to keep the worldwide Anglican Communion in one piece - it's his job! But I think he has to take a position that he is convinced is right for God's people, then say that is what this group of God's people accept and believe,and if you don't like it, then you need to leave this group.

It is a fact that the Church, the Body of Christ on Earth, is divided into increasingly untenable small groups, in direct disobedience to God's word to be as one body, reliant on each other to provide different functions - an eye, a finger, a leg etc. Nowadays every itinerant preacher with a message feels the need to set up their own church or 'movement'. God wants to return to His body, but all He can see at the moment is something out of an end-of-series CSI mortuary - lots of useless bits. He's not going to return - He can't return - until His Body has been reunited into one, or we build a new one. Maybe, as we are obviously not there yet, we have to break down the Church into smaller and smaller chunks until, just when they are barbecue-sized, someone says 'this is stupid! Let's get back together and focus on the things that bind us, not the things that don't!' Then, and only then, is there a chance of experiencing the true presence of God amongst us.

I'm not sure where I stand on the issue of gay priests. Homosexuality is an aberration, of that there can be no doubt - no organism would naturally develop the means of its own demise, that's contrary to all natural law, but most gay people I've met (not many, admittedly) have been very nice people and, I'm sure, in a position of pastoral ministry, would do a terrific job. God loves everyone, even those who have made a 'different' lifestyle choice - in fact, given Jesus' ministry, it could be argued that he loves the outcast, the misfit, more than the 'mainstream'.

The priests I have heard of in the news have, it seems, all been exemplary examples of good priesthood, worthy, in any other situation, of promotion to a high level. I can't believe that God would have called these people into the priesthood without knowing them. Maybe He's testing us to see how we react. Love is always the right answer in anything to do with God. We have the question, and we know the answer - all we have to do is put in the 'working out' to get from one to the other.

I do think that the priests involved have a duty not to prosletyse about their sexuality, not because it is to be 'swept under the carpet', but because they want to be accepted as 'ordinary' and 'ordinary' heterosexual priests, generally-speaking, do not go on about their sexuality. They just be it.

The women bishops issue I find a bit confusing. If we have women clergy, and we have had that debate for good or ill, then we should accept them at every level. If you believe that women should be ordained into ministry in the same way as men, then the argument is already done and dusted.

Dr William's compromise was always doomed to fail. He was trying to have a foot on both stools which were sliding away from each other. His added pressure is driving them away from each other more quickly and he is the one who will end up falling between them, with both of them out of reach of each other and him.

My prayer is that this probable schism will be a positive opportunity for all Christians to begin to look at what binds them, not what drives them apart and, if we focus on God and His love, we will find a way to move forward together and become one Body, fit to receive our Lord.