The provisional figures for 2003 show changes in church attendance across the 44 dioceses, including the Anglican Diocese of Europe, which also recorded a small increase. The overall picture of Anglican churchgoing remains in some confusion, however, as it has since civil servants at Church House in Westminster changed the method of gathering statistics at a time when numbers nationwide threatened to drop below one million.

The gunmen then entered the city and proceeded to rob buses, stores, government offices and six banks in a spree that saw seven killed and a score wounded, including the mayor of the city. Benin’s poorly equipped police force fled before the gang’s assault, barricading themselves inside their station.

When word of the violence reached the capital, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo declared martial law, sending the army to patrol the city following the collapse of order.

Roper refers to the Aug. 5, 2003, consecration of Gene Robinson, then 56, as bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire. ECUSA’s House of Bishops voted (62 to 43, with two abstentions) in Minneapolis to consecrate Robinson, an openly homosexual priest. Many Anglicans, especially those outside the U.S., called Robinson’s consecration a violation of Biblical teaching. ECUSA’s reported 2.3 million members are part of 70-80 million Anglicans spread throughout 160 countries.

The archbishop's purpose here, it now appears, was to say that the Christian faith should not be upset by natural disasters, because it is a faith that is not "bound up with comfort and ready answers". But what a convoluted way of putting it.

If Dr Williams was indeed misrepresented by our sister paper's headline, he himself must accept much of the blame. His prose is so obscure, his thought processes so hard to follow, that his message is often unclear.