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Anglican Church fear split over gay issue
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Gay Bishop to attend Anglican conference with or without invite
"Once we get into the need for legislation, or tribunals, monitoring or punishments, we lose the meaning of communion"
The most senior, openly gay member of the Anglican Church has announced his intention to attend a major church conference this summer despite having received no official invitation.
The Lambeth Conference is a 3 week, decadal meeting of over 800 Anglican Church leaders that will take place in Canterbury this June. Rev Gene Robinson, US Bishop of New Hampshire, will attend the conference with his partner, Mark Andrew, who he also intends to marry this summer.
The conference is presided over by Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, who failed to request the presence of the gay Bishop at this summer’s event. It is thought that Dr Williams hoped to steer away from debate of the gay issue that dominated proceedings at the last Lambeth Conference in 1998.
Rev. Robinson caused uproar amongst Anglicans when he was elected as a Bishop by the Episcopal Church of the US in 2003. His presence at the conference this summer will force debate and confrontation of the controversial gay issue.
Church of England Bishops are concerned that the divisions caused in the US Church by the gay debate will begin to be echoed in the UK. Conservative Episcopalians have already begun to veto the Lambeth Conference with only 600 attending out of the 800 Bishops invited.
Rev Peter Price, Bishop of Bath and Wells, criticised the in-fighting and the conservative elements’ attitude toward homosexuality,
“Once we get into the need for legislation, or tribunals, monitoring or punishments, we lose the meaning of communion,” he said.
Bishop Robinson will combine his presence at the Lambeth Conference with various other events in England where he will campaign for justice and equality within the church. The visit may also serve as a honeymoon for him and his partner’s June wedding; he told a conference in the US last year: “I always wanted to be a June bride.”
