A week before the Anglican National Synod meets in Brisbane, the man tipped as a likely next Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Rowan Williams, has signalled moves towards greater liberalism in the church.
The Archbishop of Wales, who gave a lecture to the John Main Seminar of the World Community for Christian Meditation at St Ignatius College, Riverview, yesterday, supports the ordination of women priests and, in principle, the ordination of practising homosexuals.
He also backs the principle of women bishops, which has been introduced in Canada, New Zealand and the United States, and will be a central item of debate at the National Synod.
Such views contradict attitudes prevailing in the Sydney Diocese, including towards lay presidency - in which someone other than an ordained priest can preside over communion.
Archbishop Williams said he opposed lay presidency because he believed it was the task of an ordained priest to "hold together the prayer of the people".
"My worry is, if you have the advantage of this being done by an ordained minister, it does not in any way become part of the politics of the congregation. It does not relate to personalities."
Yesterday, he preached at the Anglo-Catholic St James's Church, King Street, and met the deacon, the Rev Suzanne Pain, who was ordained as an Anglican priest in Adelaide, but is licensed to practice only as a deacon in the Sydney Diocese.
Archbishop Williams said: "In practice, I am not inclined to rush women bishops, particularly at a time when the Anglican Communion is a little bit fragile.
"Women bishops [are] coming onto the agenda of the Church of England. I imagine it will become part of our [the Church in Wales] own agenda. But we will wait to see what happens in the Church of England. There are diverse issues. Homosexuality is one of them."
He said he did not want to see the Anglican Communion split on the issue of homosexuality, a development threatened at the last Lambeth Conference. "I don't see homosexuality as an issue of priority that some would see," he said. "But I am on record as saying I would like to see the church moving in this way in an accepting direction. I would like to see the church doing more talking about it.
"I have a personal theological view but, as an archbishop, I ask whether what the Bible condemns in Romans 1 and Leviticus, that is certain types of behaviour, is what we have now. But I have to take seriously what the majority of the congregation are saying."