Frrom:
THE NEW YORK TIMES
May 23, 2007
Gay and Dissident Bishops Excluded From Â’08 Meeting
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
The archbishop of Canterbury sent out more than 800 invitations yesterday to a
once-a-decade global gathering of Anglican bishops. But he did not invite the
openly gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire and the bishop in Virginia who
heads a conservative cluster of disaffected American churches affiliated with
the archbishop of Nigeria.
The exclusions offended liberals and conservatives in the worldwide Anglican
Communion, which has been threatened by schism since the election in 2003 of
the bishop of New Hampshire, V. Gene Robinson, who lives with his gay partner.
The gathering, the Lambeth Conference, is shaping up as a crucial test of the
unity of the communion. It is scheduled for three weeks in the summer of 2008
in London.
The archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, issued a statement saying if an
invitation was not extended to his bishop in Virginia, Martyn Minns, he would
regard that as “withholding invitation to the entire House of Bishops of the
Church of Nigeria.”
The Nigerian archbishop leads the largest of 38 provinces in the communion,
with as many as 17 million members.
Bishop Robinson said he was extremely disappointed at his exclusion and asked
in a statement, “At a time when the Anglican Communion is calling for a
‘listening process’ on the issue of homosexuality, how does it make sense to
exclude gay and lesbian people from the discussion?”
The archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, who has expressed
liberal views on homosexuality in the past, has been determined to keep the
communion intact. In his invitation letter, Archbishop Williams wrote, “I have
to reserve the right to withhold or withdraw invitations from bishops whose
appointment, actions or manner of life have caused exceptionally serious
division or scandal within the communion.”
The secretary general of the communion, Canon Kenneth Kearon, told reporters
that the archbishop of Canterbury was contemplating inviting Bishop Robinson as
a guest, rather than a participant, but not Bishop Minns.
Canon Kearon said that the leaders of the communion recognized that Bishop
Robinson was “duly elected and consecrated according to the proper procedures
of the Episcopal Church.”
But to invite him, the canon said, “would be to ignore the very substantial
and widespread objections in many parts of the communion to his consecration
and his ministry.”
He said there was “no parallel” between Bishop Robinson and Bishop Minns, a
rector who was installed as a bishop in Virginia this month by Archbishop
Akinola, a crossing of boundaries that the archbishop of Canterbury criticized.
Bishop Minns heads a consortium of churches that have left the Episcopal
Church, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. Canon Kearon said the
convocation was not a recognized body of the Anglican Communion.
Bishop Minns said in a statement, “One thing is clear, a great deal can and
will happen before next July.”
At the last Lambeth Conference, in 1998, the bishops passed a resolution
“rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture” and declared
their opposition to blessing same-sex unions.
The archbishop of Canterbury said in his letter to the bishops that he wanted
the next conference to focus on prayer and reflection more than setting policy.
Integrity, an advocacy group for gay Episcopalians, said its members were
“outraged and appalled” at the ostracizing of Bishop Robinson and called on
American bishops “to think long and hard about whether they are willing to
participate in the continued scapegoating of the gay and lesbian faithful as
the price for going to the Lambeth Conference.”
American bishops are reacting cautiously. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts
Schori said in a brief statement, “I urge a calm approach,” and added that the
situation could change over the next 14 months.
The bishop of Vermont, Thomas Clark Ely, said: “It’s hard for me to see my
colleague in a different status than I am. I think thereÂ’s still time to try to
work this through. I would hope there is.”
Canon Kearon said two other bishops risked being disinvited. Church officials
said one was Nolbert Kunonga, the archbishop of Harare, Zimbabwe, and an ally
of President Robert G. Mugabe, who has been accused of human rights abuses. The
other bishop was not identified.
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