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.

At the present time the destruction is so vast that we have not been able to get very specific details on the number of churches and Christians affected. The tsunami hit us on a Sunday morning while thousands were at church services. From the information we received thousands of churches have been affected and some congregations were wiped out by the tidal wave. There were also Christian orphanages with children who were greatly affected by this.

But the children did not die. Thanks to quick thinking, blind luck and an outboard motor that somehow started on the first pull, the orphans and their caretakers joined the ranks of countless survivors of the epic earthquake and coastal disaster that so far has claimed over 100,000 lives in Sri Lanka and 11 other countries. This is their story.