Anglican Mainstream

By Ruth Gledhill, Timesonline

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has admitted the coming Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Church’s bishops from around the world may well be a "painful" experience for many.

But he said he hoped a "way forward" could be found in a Church facing almost inevitable schism between the liberal West and evangelical South over the issues of homosexual ordination and same-sex blessing services.

He disclosed that he has been holding private meetings with bishops from both sides on how to be "part of a shared vision."

In a letter to all the Church’s 800-plus bishops, of which about a quarter will be boycotting Lambeth and attending instead the "alternative" Global Anglican Future Conference in the Middle East next month, he made it clear that he did not want the focus at Lambeth to be on the divisive issue of sexuality when there is so much in the areas of poverty, violence and injustice to be addressed in the wider world.

"We hope that people will not come so wedded to their own agenda and their local priorities that they cannot listen to those from other cultural backgrounds," he pleaded in the letter, timed to coincide with the Christian festival of Pentecost.

In an attempt to avoid the kind of confrontational parliamentary-style debate that has been a characteristic of previous Lambeth Conferences as well as meetings of the Church of England General Synod, the group responsible for organising the event have adopted a different style.

The two weeks at Kent University in Canterbury in July will instead see bishops split up into "indaba" groups, taken from a Zulu word for discussion among equals.

Dr Williams said: "Its aim is not to negotiate a formula that will keep everyone happy but to go to the heart of an issue and find what the true challenges are before seeking God’s way forward. It is a method with parallels in many cultures, and it is close to what Benedictine monks and Quaker Meetings seek to achieve as they listen quietly together to God, in a community where all are committed to a fellowship of love and attention to each other and to the word of God."

He continued: "The hope is that over the two weeks we spend together, these groups will build a level of trust that will help us break down the walls we have so often built against each other in the Communion."

His hopes of a non-confrontational conference may be in vain, however. The openly-gay Bishop of New Hampshire, the Right Rev Gene Robinson, whose consecration in 2003 was one of the events that triggered the present crisis, has not been invited but plans to attend in any case where he will speak at fringe meetings.

Also, increasing numbers of conservative bishops who are attending the Global Anglican event in Jordan and Israel are also deciding now to come to Lambeth as well.

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