Though women are primarily involved as advisers, spouses and fringe participants at the male-dominated Lambeth Conference this year, in future the number of women bishops will grow and one might well be presiding Archbishop.

Bishops from the worldwide Anglican Communion have been experiencing hospitality visits and prayer retreats in advance of the formal element of the Lambeth Conference, which is meeting on the campus of the University of Kent.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has renewed his call for global Anglican leaders to focus on the gospel as a message of hope and healing for the world, and to move beyond factional in-fighting as they gather in Lambeth.

Some sections of the Anglican Communion are convinced that only their narrow vision of what is permissible in faithfulness to the Christian message is adequate, says Simon Barrow. But they are confounded by the biblical texts they claim loyalty to.