World

By Jill Smolowe.

AN EXTRAORDINARY ENVOY GIVEN THE SENSITIVITY OF THE MISSION AND THE STRONG POSSIBILITY OF YET ANOTHER DISAPPOINTMENT, TERRY WAITE KNEW MORE THAN HE WAS TELLING LAST FRIDAY MORNING WHEN HE CALLED THE BEIRUT OFFICE OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. "SIMPLY, I'M HERE," HE ANNOUNCED. "SOMETHING MIGHT HAPPEN. NOTHING HARD YET, BUT IT'S MOVING." WITH A CHARACTERISTIC MIX OF BRAVADO AND DISCRETION, HE ADDED, "IT APPEARS TO BE MOVING. YOU KEEP AN EYE, JUST KEEP AN EYE. BYE-BYE FOR NOW." THEN HE

HUNG UP, SETTING OFF RUMORS THAT SEVERAL WESTERN HOSTAGES WERE about to be or had already been released. Two days later Waite scored a new success.

With that, Terry Waite reaffirmed his credentials as an extraordinary envoy. During his six years as the special emissary of Robert Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Waite has gained a reputation for being one of the world's top troubleshooters. His first successful mediation effort came in 1981 when he traveled to Tehran and secured the release of four Britons being held by Iranian authorities. Three years later he again intervened for Brit ain, this time in Libya, where four British citizens had been jailed, unwitting pawns in an ugly political duel between the governments in London and Tripoli. Following a Christmas Day meeting with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in the Libyan strongman's Bedouin tent, the Britons were freed. In September 1985 Waite played a still unspecified role in the release of a U.S. hostage, the Rev. Benjamin Weir, who had been held for 16 months in Lebanon.

Two months later, Waite began the shuttle diplomacy between London and Beirut that would earn him the nickname of the "Anglican Henry Kissinger." Last November and December he visited Lebanon three times to negotiate for the release of four American hostages held by Muslim extremists. Waite was in Jordan last July when one of them, Father Lawrence Jenco, was released, leading to speculation that the stocky envoy had once again had a hand in the affair. But Waite's appeals on behalf of two French captives and the remaining U.S. hostages, whose number in recent months has grown to seven, went unheeded. Hence it was hardly surprising that Waite was back in Beirut last week, once again pressing his diplomatic mission.

At 47, Waite is not a man who is easily deterred from a goal. While Waite was growing up in the northwestern English village of Styal, his father, a policeman, frequently exhorted, "If you start something, see it through to the finish." Waite has toyed from time to time with the idea of being ordained, but so far he has decided to remain a layman. Nonetheless, his career has almost always been in church affairs. After studying theology at London's Church Army College, he worked as a lay training adviser to the Anglican Bishop of Bristol. In 1968 he headed for Uganda to become an adviser to the local archbishop. Even then his life was infected with a dash of danger. In 1971 he and his wife Frances, who have three daughters and a son, were held at gunpoint for some hours during a mass expulsion of foreigners following Idi Amin Dada's takeover.

Waite's religious work has not been confined to the Anglican Church. Between 1972 and 1979 he served in Rome as an adviser to the Vatican on African missionary activities. He returned to London in 1980 to accept his current post with Runcie, thus becoming the first layman to be a personal aide to an Archbishop of Canterbury. While the job description called for someone who could handle mail and maintain links between the Archbishop and his 70 million-strong Anglican following around the world, Waite was not cut out for a desk job. The towering 6-ft. 7-in., 250-lb. envoy seems unable to sit still for long. He loves to travel, an addiction that makes him well suited for his dangerous missions but ill suited for routine administrative duties.

More than wanderlust, however, makes Waite the right man to carry out diplomatic chores for Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury's official residence. The intrepid envoy has the right temperament for nail-biting assignments. Last November, when he was pinned down by gunfire in the A.P. office in Beirut, he displayed characteristic good humor. At one point he broke the tension with the announcement that he would take a shower. "If you / can't do anything else," he said, "you might as well make use of the time."

Having served both the Roman Catholic and the Anglican churches, Waite has the advantage of appearing religious but not doctrinal. He also has an appreciation for the religious aspects of political confrontations, be they in Libya, Iran or Lebanon. When he met with Gaddafi in December 1984, the two men debated, among other things, the effect of Greek philosophy on Islam and Christianity. Sensibly, when Waite first arrived in Beirut last year, he quickly noted the sufferings of Lebanon's community of some 1 million Shi'ites.

Waite is also trusted by all sides to remain impartial and apolitical. "He has no political point of view whatsoever," says a British diplomat. "He carries out his missions from a strictly humanitarian point of view." Perhaps most important, Waite is a man known to guard confidences jealously. That trait has earned him the trust of not only Pope John Paul II and Archbishop Runcie but Gaddafi and Shi'ite kidnapers.

Sometimes Waite has appeared to grandstand a bit. His three trips within six weeks to Beirut last year attracted enormous publicity. At one point he called a press conference at which he announced that hostage negotiations were at a "critical and dangerous stage" and entreated reporters to "give me some space." Last week his phone call to the press might have proved embarrassing had he not produced any concrete results. But he finally did, which secures his reputation as a brave -- and successful -- troubleshooter.

With reporting by Scott MacLeod/Cairo and James Shepherd/ London