The issues of homosexuality and women bishops have caused public tension and deep division within the Anglican Communion during Williams' tenure.

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The debate over homosexuality and the role of women in the church threatens to produce a schism in the worldwide Anglican communion.

ECONOMIST: Politics this week | The

Much of his time was spent on the fraught process of creating women bishops, and patching up disputes about homosexuality, in the Church of England, and in the 38 autonomous churches that make up the Anglican Communion.

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