Provinces to boycott Lambeth

By Sue Careless

Photo: Sue Careless 

Several possible boycotts threaten to ruin the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth Conference. But the proposed agenda for Lambeth is also proving controversial and could reduce the Conference from a resolution-making body, which it has been in the past, to what one critic has called merely an “episcopal jamboree.”

In May, Archbishop Rowan Williams invited over 800 Anglican bishops to attend the once-in-a-decade Lambeth Conference to be held in England next summer.  But there were some notable absences from his guest list. To complicate matters further, Williams warned that he may rescind some invitations. So the situation is very fluid and the final guest list anything but fixed.

Some bishops may boycott the Conference in order to support those they feel were unfairly excluded. And some bishops may boycott Lambeth to protest the attendance of bishops they thought should not have been invited.

First, who was excluded at the outset? Some were American bishops: Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, was elevated to bishop even though he was, and still is, living openly in a homosexual relationship. Since his election in 2003, thousands of Episcopalians have left the Episcopal Church. The archbishop’s office acknowledged that there had been “very substantial and very widespread objections in many parts of the communion to his consecration and to his ministry.” The archbishop’s office conceded that Robinson will likely be allowed to attend as an observer.

Although many liberal American bishops and Canadian bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster have verbally protested Robinson’s exclusion, it is expected that only one American, John Chane, Bishop of Washington, would boycott Lambeth out of loyalty

to Robinson.

While most bishops in the Global South are pleased that Robinson has not been invited, they are alarmed that all the bishops who consecrated him (including Ingham) are still being allowed to attend, and that their missionary bishops in North America were excluded.

For instance, Martyn Minns, Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), was not invited. Minns was installed as bishop of CANA this past May in Virginia by Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola. CANA was set up originally by Akinola six years ago for Anglican Nigerians living in the States because he considered the Episcopal Church too theologically liberal. Today many disillusioned Episcopalian Americans are flocking to it as well. The House of Bishops in Nigeria has decided to boycott Lambeth over Minns’ exclusion.

Some thought that Bishop Charles Murphy, Chairman of the American Mission in America, should have been invited along with the other bishops in AMiA. AMiA is a mission body, an outreach of the province of Rwanda in the States, set up for orthodox Anglicans who have become discouraged with TEC. The Most Rev. Emmanuel Kolini, Primate of the Province of Rwanda, consecrated Murphy a year ago. The Rwandan House of Bishops has decided to boycott Lambeth to protest Murphy’s exclusion.

A notorious African bishop has also been excluded at the outset. Nolbert Kunonga, the Archbishop of Harare, Zimbabwe, has been accused of serious human rights abuses. No one seems to question his exclusion. Kunonga would seem to fall into the category of those “whose appointment, actions or manner of life have caused exceptionally serious division or scandal within the Communion.”

Sadly a faithful South American bishop has not received an invitation. Robinson Cavalcanti of Recife, Brazil was the bishop of the only orthodox diocese in the liberal province of Brazil. Brazil receives much financial support from The Episcopal Church in the States. Cavalcanti was removed by his primate and most of his priests have followed him. A new liberal bishop has been installed but in 2005 Cavalcanti appealed for justice from the Panel of Reference. To date there has been no resolution and this shunning is one further affront.

A neighbouring primate, Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone has provided “extraterritorial care” for Cavalcanti and his forty priests. Venables has also protested Cavalcanti’s exclusion from Lambeth. Venables told the Daily Telegraph: “It is a mess. Unless there is a major shift there are going to be significant absences from Lambeth.”

Another boycott was announced in late June by the Sydney-based diocese in Australia: Archbishop Peter Jensen and the five regional bishops of New South Wales will not attend Lambeth. Rather they say they will attend an “alternative” Christian gathering to “realign the Communion.”

RSVP’s to Lambeth are requested by July 23.

Timing and agenda

Many wondered why the Archbishop of Canterbury sent his invitations out a full 14 months before the Conference. It would have seemed more appropriate to have issued them after the critical American House of Bishop’s meeting in September.

Since Robinson’s consecration in 2003, the Primates have repeatedly asked the Episcopal Church (TEC) to repent and cease from any further consecrations of openly gay bishops or the blessing of same-sex unions. In their Dar es Salaam Communique in February, the Primates gave TEC an ultimatum to repent by Sept. 30 or face expulsion from full membership in the Anglican Communion.

The Conference agenda has also shifted drastically from what many bishops had experienced at the last Lambeth gathering in 1998.

The African CAPA bishops (Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa) have issued a statement saying: “We are disappointed that the central issue of an Anglican Communion Covenant is not front-and-centre on the agenda of the Conference. If any group should be expected to consult on these most important issues, it should be the assembled bishops of the Communion.

“Our African churches are asked to divert funds from much needed work of evangelization and charity to a 3-week meeting which has no authority and which is blatantly ignored by ‘autonomous’ member churches. In some cases, poorer provinces are ‘assisted’ by donors from the West who have a deliberate agenda of buying silence from these churches. We conclude that if a regular all-bishops’ conference is to continue in the Anglican Communion, it should be held in the Global South, where the costs are much less and the local economy can benefit; that it be shorter in duration; and

that every church be required to pay its own way.”

The CAPA bishops said that they would take care of their own genuinely needy members.