If you were the next ABC, what would you do?

This is what I would do ... in respect of the Communion side of things.

(1) I would see the Covenant process through to the point where it was clear whether we were going to have a Covenanted Communion or not (though that process may come to an end before the end of this year should the C of E itself decline to accept the Covenant). On the presumption that the Communion is not going to be a Covenanted Communion I would make clear my determination that this meant that the autonomy of local churches reigned supreme in Anglican thinking in respect of global fellowship, responding to Christ's ut unim sunt prayer, and working on matters of common life.

(2) I would then declare that no Lambeth Conference or Primates Meeting would be called by me until 90% or more of the bishops and primates signalled in writing that were such meetings to be called, they would join in eucharistic fellowship together.

(4) As far as possible the word 'Communion' would drop out of my vocabulary and I would talk about the 'Anglican global association' (Aga) instead.

(3) The point would be made that the Covenant process had revealed at least three significant theological groupings in the Communion,
- those who saw a Covenanted Aga as having a deficit of justice,
- those who saw a Covenanted Aga as having a deficit of truth, and
- those who saw an unCovenanted Aga as having a deficit of unity.

I would invite each of those groups to forge their own corporate Anglican identity via any means they saw fit. I would be available to attend any conferences or other meetings these groups decided upon. I would communicate my hopes for the future of the Anglican global association, that one day it would be united in following one of these three models for AnglicanLifeInternational.

(4) ACC would be allowed to continue to meet because it is unlikely to stop meeting even if I asked it to cease, what with it being an Anglican committee with a constitution and not being ruled by the ABC's fiat.

(5) I would take no part in any ARCIC deliberations until such time as the conditions for the Lambeth Conference and Primates' Meetings in (2) above were met. I would personally explain to the Pope that integrity required me not to pretend that some kind of common Anglican mind was being engaged through ARCIC with the common mind of the Roman church.

(6) Whenever I met a primate or bishop I would remind them of (2) above and ask whether the Anglican global association grouping they belonged to had any proposal to bring for renewing the eucharistic fellowship of the global association.

(7) I would write a magnum opus on communio ecclesiology. It might not be a very good book but it would be quite large because its opening chapter would need to be quite a long account of why the Anglican global association had become what it is. There would also be another long chapter in which I bewailed the folly of those bishops who harped on about the deficiencies of the Covenant while having nothing useful to say about how the corporate life of the Anglican global fellowship could be improved (example here).

By the way, this is not a candidacy speech. Apparently since the ABC is one of the Lords Spiritual sitting in the upper chamber of the British parliament, certain citizen requirements must be met, none of which I qualify for being a Kiwi without British parent or grandparent to secure me useful bits of paper!

PS What would I do if I were the ABC, in respect of the C of E part of the role?

I would appoint Tom Wright and John Milbank as my theological advisors. That should get the chattering classes chattering :)