The archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual head of 77 million Anglicans worldwide, has not invited two wayward bishops to a major conference next year, a move likely to stir controversy in the deeply divided communion.
Archbishop Rowan Williams has sent invitations to more than 800 Anglican bishops asking them to attend the Lambeth Conference in London in July and August 2008, but has not invited two American bishops -- Gene Robinson and Martyn Minns.
Robinson has caused division since he was consecrated as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, becoming the Anglican Church's first openly gay bishop.
Minns, a deeply conservative Episcopalian, was installed last year as the head of a new Nigerian-based church branch in the United States designed as a refuge for orthodox believers. The Anglican Communion does not recognize his position.
"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," Williams wrote in his invitations, which were sent out on Tuesday.
"I do not say this lightly, but I believe that we need to know as we meet that each participant recognizes and honors the task set before us and that there is an adequate level of mutual trust between us about this."
It is possible that others will either not be invited or will have their invitations withdrawn before the conference takes place if anything "untoward or unacceptable" occurs between now and then, an Anglican spokesman said.
There seems to be a couple of different aspects to this situation. The most obvious is the desire of Williams that the bishops behave themselves. By removing the most obvious sources of rancor, bishops Robinson and Minns, Williams is hoping to restore some collegiality to the Lambeth proceedings. And, really, who could blame him for that?
However, I also get the sense that Williams is secretly hoping these sorts of problems will just go away on their own. In light of this the Reuters headline misses the point. The "snub" of Robinson is not the important thing here, especially as the article points out that Robinson will probably be invited to the conference as a "guest." The real point seems to be that Williams will accept whatever the American Church decides. Williams just wants them to stop squabbling. Fundamentally, this signals that Williams has no desire to get involved with the concerns of traditional minded Episcopalian in the United States, even if he sympathizes with them.
The real question is if the rest of the Anglican communion will go along with this approach, or if further fractures will appear as a result. The strong stand taken by the traditionalists in the African churches signals there may be more troubles ahead.
Williams may just want everybody to get along, but what he might get is a wider schism.
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