Rite and Reason: The Anglican Communion can never be the same again, writes Archbishop Robin Eames.
When a machine of many different parts is working the general advice is - don't fix it.
When something goes wrong, a multitude of remedies are offered. Just occasionally questions are prompted that go far beyond the reason for a breakdown. A crisis makes people ask not just how do we fix it - but what will repairs produce and are they worth it?
The past year has seen the worldwide Anglican Communion of 78 million people face a crisis of mounting proportions. The well-publicised causes have been questions of attitudes to sexuality reflected in the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada. However the crisis has also been due to the strength of reactions to those developments, particularly from the global south.
Uninvited intervention in other provinces by archbishops and bishops anxious to provide support for minority groupings have themselves added to the problem. In the middle of this scenario of suspicion and discontent, the Archbishopric of Canterbury, as the central pivotal point of Anglicanism, faces a family in turmoil.
As the storm has raged, the Lambeth Commission - of which I was privileged to be chairman - was charged with examining ways of healing the rifts and identifying pointers towards strengthened understanding or "communion".
Our international membership represented all shades of conservative and liberal attitudes to our current problems. We began our work surrounded by pessimism that because of our diversity we would find the task impossible. Twelve months later, after a pilgrimage of trust and collegiality and much hard work, we have produced a unanimous set of recommendations.
The question now is, - does the Anglican Communion want reconciliation? How much do its members want to be "in communion" with each other?
Is the path forward to be realignment of differing churches for whom traditional "bonds of affection" are no longer sufficient to hold them together?
As the Anglican Communion analyses the possibilities held out by the commission report, the clash between North America and the global south may be about sexuality - but there is so much more to it.
Culture, tradition, influence over how decisions are made in one part of the church and how they affect others, all play a part. But above and beyond the initial issues and of equal importance for the rest of the Anglican world, not least the Church of Ireland, are issues about authority, decision-making, Biblical interpretation, accountability and relationships.
So what is the future for the Anglican Communion?
The truth is that with no strict constitutional provisions to regulate relationships within the communion, Anglicanism depends on "bonds of affection", agreements and a desire to be in special relationships with its diverse parts.
The vast majority of submissions to the commission expressed a genuine desire to see the Anglican Communion continue as a viable part of the Body of Christ.
When the crisis arose it was not to law we turned but to basic questions about relationships.
Between now and the meeting of primates next February, reactions to the commission's report will be received and analysed. It is a time for heart-searching for the communion.
Many theories are already becoming clear.
A federation of churches rather than a communion?
A communion which can paper over the cracks but retain some semblance of agreement to differ?
A realignment which owes more to cultural and political difference than to a common ecclesiology?
Whatever emerges, the Anglican Communion can never be the same again.
The historic centrality of Canterbury may remain the point from which the Anglican journey stems and the point at which diverse roads meet, but the numerical strengths and much of the focus of international expressions of Anglicanism is now somewhere south of the Sahara.
The vitality of the global south challenges the traditions of the north and west in ways of which cultural diversity is but one part.
Anglicanism has always avoided a central curia. Interdependence has been at its core. Now Anglicans may well ask how much they are prepared to pay if schism is to be avoided. Does consensus inevitably mean some surrender of truth?
The machinery of this communion needs fixing. Is there going to be agreement on how we do it?
Archbishop Robin Eames is Church of Ireland Primate of All-Ireland. He was also chairman of the Lambeth Commission which prepared the Windsor Report published last Monday