Well – it looks as if I shouldn’t have been so pessimistic about the Northern Ireland talks. There wasn’t much of a ‘feel good’ factor about it all – but at least there is some agreement or an agreement to agree some time in the future. And then one says, ‘If they could agree that today, why couldn’t they have agreed it five years ago or ten or twenty …?’
But then it isn’t as simple as that. Nor are our difficulties within the Anglican Communion. I can see all the same tendencies – difference tends to move further apart and the centre is eroded; dialogue becomes difficult because it is fraught with misunderstanding. I suspect that, in the short terms, we shall hold together only if we make a decision to do so – regardless of the difficulties.