Within hours of the release of the highly anticipated report of the Lambeth Commission on Communion, clergy and lay leaders from around the world were weighing in with observations, opinions, and predictions.

“I hope that everyone with the well being of our Communion at heart will now take time to study the report, and to pray and reflect upon its proposals,” said the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, noting that the proposals “offer neither easy nor simple solutions to real and demanding challenges.

“There is plenty to digest and there should be no rush to judgment,” the archbishop said. “We want voices round the Communion to be heard and we will be putting in place a careful and wide-ranging process for gathering responses.”

“The report will be received and interpreted within the provinces of the Communion in different ways, depending on our understanding of the nature and appropriate expression of sexuality,” said Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold. “It is important to note here that in the Episcopal Church we are seeking to live the gospel in a society where homosexuality is openly discussed and increasingly acknowledged in all areas of our public life. There are those among us who perceive the fruit of the Spirit deeply present in the lives of gay and lesbian Christians, both within the church and in their relationships. However, other equally faithful persons among us regard same gender relationships as contrary to scripture. Consequently, we continue to struggle with questions regarding sexuality.”

Bishop Griswold said “the report calls our Communion to reconciliation, which does not mean the reduction of differences to a single point of view.” He said he hoped that the “diverse center” of the Episcopal Church, which shares “a common commitment to Jesus Christ and a sense of mission in his name” would “override varying opinions on any number of issues, including homosexuality.”

“We regret how difficult and painful actions of our church have been in many provinces of our Communion, and the negative repercussions that have been felt by brother and sister Anglicans,” Bishop Griswold continued. “We deeply value and are much enriched by our membership in the Anglican Communion. We also value Anglican comprehensiveness and its capacity to make room for difference."

Forward in Faith North America’s president, the Rev. David L. Moyer, and pastoral field officer, the Rev. Canon Jonathan Ostman, applauded the Archbishop of Canterbury for establishing the commission, but said that the report failed to provide “determination of what constitutes the minimum requirement for membership in the Anglican Communion. There is no definition of what would constitute an adequate apology from those who caused, and from those who have responded to the `impaired’ communion. There is nothing offered for a world-wide solution to address the schismatic state of the Anglican Communion.”

The Anglican Communion Network and American Anglican Council said they “echo[ed] the commission’s deep concerns with the unilateral decisions and actions of the Episcopal Church as well as the Anglican Church in Canada that have fractured the Anglican Communion and brought us to this crisis. We see a critical need for a core covenant and applaud this recommendation by the commission.

“We understand and embrace the justifiable concern for the unity of the communion, and we treasure real unity,” the network’s statement continued. “We cannot in good conscience, however, support such unity at the expense of truth. We are deeply saddened that within minutes of the Windsor Report's release, the Presiding Bishop has already rejected its core presupposition that is the church's traditional teaching on human sexuality.”

“This report disappoints greatly because its chief interest is unity as opposed to the truth of the Gospel,” commented Anglican Mission in America Bishop John Hewitt Rodgers. “To address the issue of unity without a clear concern for the truth of the gospel is indefensible. This fatally flaws the entire report, especially the section on recommendations.

“The failure to appeal to the clear teaching of holy scripture invites us into a never-ending process of discussion on matters about which God has clearly spoken,” Bishop Rodgers continued. “This is a strategy to weary and finally to drive from the Communion those who take the scripture seriously. Enough is enough.”

The Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Rev. Njongonkulu Ndungane, said of his first reading of the report, "it seems to me that we have been given the rich gift of a deep theological and spiritual reflection on the nature of the common life of God's people, as members of the body of Christ, of the one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, and of the Anglican Communion. There is so much here which can build up and nurture our common life. We have the chance to make this a 'win-win' opportunity. We must grasp this chance with both hands."

The Most Rev. Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria, criticized the report for offering "warm words of sentimentality for those who have shown no godly sorrow for their actions and harsh words of condemnation for those who have reached out a helping hand to friends in need of pastoral and spiritual care."

He continued, "We have been asked to express regret for our actions and 'affirm our desire to remain in the Communion.' How patronizing! We will not be intimidated. In the absence of any signs of repentance and reform from those who have torn the fabric of our Communion, and while there is continuing oppression of those who uphold the faith, we cannot forsake our duty to provide care and protection for those who cry out for our help."

The Most Rev. Andrew Hutchison, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Canada, found it significant that "the commission has submitted unanimous recommendations in spite of the cultural and theological differences of its members. This indicates that there is a positive will to maintain the unity of the diverse Anglican Communion. The fact that commission members can speak with one voice holds open the door of hope that our Church can, with prayer and dialogue, persevere in seeking unity."

The Canadian bishops will discuss the Windsor Report at a Nov. 1-4 meeting in Saskatoon.

Preaching at St. Stephen's Church, West Valley City, Utah, the day before the report’s release, the Most Rev. Carlos Touche-Porter, Anglican Archbishop of Mexico, told the congregation, “I would like to assure you and all Episcopalians of our prayers and concern for you as you face this difficult time as a Province of the Anglican Communion. Above all, I would like to assure you that we consider it a blessing and a privilege to be in full communion with you, all of you, and that we are determined to remain so until the end of time."

The Rt. Rev. John B. Chane, Bishop of Washington, noted that the commission invited those bishops who took part in the consecration of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire to “express regret that the constraints of the bonds of affection were breached in the events surrounding Gene's election and consecration. I accept this invitation, and express my sadness that actions we undertook in good conscience, actions which gave hope to one alienated and marginalized population, have themselves engendered alienation and made others feel marginalized. This was not our intent.”

Bishop Chane mentioned his gratitude that the commission “reaffirmed the importance of bishops' respecting diocesan boundaries. During the year that the Lambeth Commission has been at work on this report, we have seen the traditional observation of such boundaries disregarded by both primates and bishops who are disaffected from the Episcopal Church. I trust that the commission's strong admonition against this activity will put an end to it, and that the commission's endorsement of the U. S. House of Bishops plan to care for dissenting minorities will lead members of those minorities to make use of its generous provisions.”

The Rev. Susan Russell, president of Integrity USA, said “we are grateful that the report recognizes that serious, Communion-wide dialogue on the ordination of gay and lesbian persons and the blessing of same-sex relationships has not occurred. We look forward to the development of a process that will enable true dialogue on these issues. We hope that such conversation will not only be about homosexuality, but with gay and lesbian Anglicans.

“Overall it seems to us that the report is a call to an earnest, Communion-wide discernment process about the nature of the gospel and the nature of the Church given the contexts of our varied interpretations of the scriptures, our differing approaches to Anglican tradition, and the complex realities in which the various provinces of the Communion live," Ms. Russell said. “Clearly it is essential that this conversation occurs, and in such a manner that all the people of God who are members of this Communion can fully participate.”