At the conclusion of the first day of the Primates meetings in Alexandria, Archbishop Rowan Williams delivered the sermon at a service celebrating the dedication of St. Mark’s pro-Cathedral. Ruth Gledhill has transcribed the sermon which can be heard here. An extract:
Our work may or may not be successful and yet God remains faithful. And so as we turn to one another it also changes how we see each other. The person sitting next to me praying next to me is someone in whom Jesus is praying. I try to listen to the voice of Jesus at prayer in them. I try to see the force and energy of Jesus’s life in them.
And when I try to make dismiss them or make little of them when I speak harshly to them or about them I am in danger of destroying that place which is a place where Jesus is.
Many are interpreting these words as intended not just for the congregation of St.Mark’s, but for the primates and for the Anglican Communion.