From here:

Dr Rowan Williams has refused to be drawn on the issue publicly, but has broken his silence to tell MPs he is not prepared for the Coalition to tell the Church how to behave.

He told a private meeting of influential politicians that the Church of England would not bow to public pressure to allow its buildings to be used to conduct same-sex civil partnerships.

It’s hard to know what is going on in Rowan Williams’ erudite Hegelian head at the best of times and, for him, this is not the best of times. Why would an archbishop who has written that, in his view, homosexual relationships are comparable to marriage not allow such marriage in his church?

Not, presumably, because of personal conviction, but because he is committed, in his own potty way, to holding the Anglican Communion together, whatever it takes. So, in order to convince conservatives that they still have his ear, it’s the liberals’ turn to take a poke in the eye – for unity.

Or perhaps he suffers from that most debilitating of contemporary liberal malaises, the lack of clear categories to organise his thinking, making it impossible for him to have straightforward answers to difficult questions – resulting in an inability to take a side.