Q. You retired earlier than required. ...Tell me why.

A. It was very pragmatic. I'd done 11, nearly 12 years. It's a very demanding job. (I) thought I needed to give more time to wife and family....There was another fundamental reason as well....My successor had to have time to work towards building up for the next Lambeth Conference.

Q. There's talk...about people's priorities and work taking up so much time and family sometimes getting the short end. Did you hope...to be any sort of example for someone who might be looking at issues of work-life balance?

A. No, not consciously....

I think what you're raising is very, very important, but in no way did I see what I was doing as a deliberate example of how people -- priests and ministers -- should live their lives....But you get an enormous amount of job satisfaction to such a degree, actually, that you can neglect your family.

Q. When you became archbishop and thereby spiritual leader for millions around the world, to whom did you turn for your own spiritual guidance and for inspiration?

A. My wife...has always been in our 45 years of marriage the best friend I've got and the greatest support I've got. At Lambeth Palace, of course, we had a very small but very supportive community. We met for daily prayer, and so I was able to rely upon my senior team for support and encouragement. Also, actually, your own spiritual resources, of course, are... fundamentally important.

Q. During the time you served as archbishop, you led the Church of England to ordain women as priests but supported those who opposed same-sex relationships. How do you see the issue of women's ordination differently than that of ordaining gays and lesbians?

A. I think they are different, quite different in my opinion. I've always been a supporter of the ordination of women and really I suppose my thinking on that started when I was a curate in Islington....There was a woman called Doreen on the staff, she was about eight years older than me....And yet as a woman in those days, the only thing she could do was to teach the women and children and do nothing in church at all.

...That gradually changed over the years but I always thought that she was probably the most gifted person on the staff and she was the one who wasn't able to minister. And that seemed to me to be very wrong in Christian terms as well....

As time went on, of course, the head of steam grew for the ordaining (of) women, I found myself naturally drawn to support that. I couldn't find anything in Scripture that militated against that, not fundamentally, so I was delighted in my time we were able to drive through the legislation and ordain women.

How does that differ from the homosexual issue? Well it differs in this, that God created male and female. He's given gifts to everybody. He's given gifts to homosexuals too. No one is stopping people exercising these gifts in the church and in the world. The difference, however, is that there's a major controversy about the position of practicing homosexuality. The Bible is one, clear, univocal voice on that and that is, it's wrong....The homosexual condition itself is not wrong....So for the church to bring in legislation that recognized same-sex relationships I think would be a major drift away from mainstream Christian orthodoxy and it is one step that I don't think the Episcopal Anglican tradition should take.

Q. The Anglican...Communion of course is not the only religious body to have debated issues relating to homosexuality during the past several years. How do you see your own church and others moving beyond those issues?

A. The issue is not going to go away. And you can take a number of views on this. One view, and the absolutist view, would be to say homosexuality is so definitely wrong that the church would oppose it in the future as it does now. A more pragmatic approach (would) say at the moment it is clear that to ordain practicing (homosexuals) would divide the church greatly so let's wait and see....In a way, I take the more pragmatic approach on this really. Although it seems to me that the biblical authority is really univocal in its opposition..., we simply have to wait and see how the Holy Spirit is going to lead the church in this. But we must keep in step with the Catholic tradition, with the Orthodox tradition, with mainstream non-conformist traditions, otherwise we'll be completely out of step and we'll become just a small sect. Q. As you may know there are ... congregations in this area affiliated with the Anglican Mission in America, and at the time that archbishops from Rwanda and Singapore moved to consecrate the American bishops, you said their actions were... "at best highly irregular and at worst simply schismatic." What would you say to those in the area whose congregations are affiliated with the AMIA?

A. I felt it was very regrettable that the AMIA took the step ordaining bishops. I thought it was a bit premature. They were almost anticipating that the American church would take the step it has. But things have moved on since then and I hope it might be possible to... bring back AMIA churches into mainstream life should the American church commit itself to the Windsor Report. If it doesn't, then I can see a further drift towards that tradition, sadly.... When I said those words, I saw the action of the conservatives as a sort of mirror image of what the other part were doing and that they were all breaking the law.

Q. What do you say to those who were disturbed by Gene Robinson's consecration?

A. Well, I'd want to say, to stay within the church and don't walk away from it.... And when we lose members who are distressed by the Gene Robinson matter, what happens is a weakening of Christian mission. So they may feel that they're keeping the purity of the faith themselves, but they're actually weakening strong orthodox congregations such as this one.

Q. What would you say to those who don't believe the Anglican Communion has gone far enough...to embrace gays and lesbians?

A. I'd want to say to them that I think the orthodox part of the church has failed homosexuals by not loving and accepting them as they ought to.

Q. Church attendance in many places has declined over the years. Why do you think that is and what things do you think congregations or spiritual leaders might do to reverse that trend?

A. My job as archbishop, when I was archbishop, was to say, look, there are factors that affect our ministry which are not caused by us but they're caused by a mixture of things that are happening in modern, advanced societies such as the huge mobility of people, breakup of community, the challenge of mass entertainment, the car. People are now able to travel immense distances...(on) weekends and start their work on Monday morning. And so we've lost the sense of community, that's the most dramatic really, and the church has always been at its strongest where community is strongest....Therefore the challenge...is to create com munity.

Q. What would you like your legacy as archbishop to be? And is that any separate from the legacy you'd like...of just you as George Carey to be?

A. I don't dwell too much on legacies....I've never lived life like that really, I mean,...John the Baptist (said) about Jesus Christ,... 'He must increase, but I must decrease,' has always been my kind of motto in a way because...what matters is not the individual, it's the cause you represent.

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