Dear Frank,

How kind of you to loan us the Gregory crozier for our forthcoming meeting of Anglican Primates! Anglicans are not big on relics – in fact we had a rather colourful episode when we smashed them up – but it was a kind thought: the successor of Gregory to the successor of Augustine. It nicely expresses both fellowship and condescension.  I got the point.

I must confess that I have been having sleepless nights over this meeting (which is not like me – Caroline always jokes about ‘the sleep of the Justin’). The truth is that I can see only too clearly that we cannot ‘indaba’ our way out of this one. The chaps are beginning to see through the ‘facilitated dialogue’ ploy. At some stage, I fear, we will have to talk turkey – which is very uncomfortable and very unanglican.

Spare a thought, then, for those of us who simply cannot get away with writing the summary of the meeting before it has taken place, the way you can.  The best I can hope for from a gathering like this is that nothing much happens. But it will.

Still – fingers crossed!

Your friend,

Justin.