Word: lambeth
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Strong words, and ominous for Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who next month will convene the Communion's once-a-decade Lambeth Conference. If all the conservatives walk out, they will diminish attendance at the July 20 conference by more than one-quarter. (Liberals assert that the number of abstainers will be much smaller.) The entire process could well result in the diminution of the power of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the titular head of the Communion and the closest thing the denomination has to a Pontiff...
...distinctly possible that the GAFcon meeting will determine what actually happens at July's much larger Lambeth Conference, which may see bishops from 160 countries in attendance. That is because, as Robinson put it to TIME recently, Lambeth "is designed not to be productive in the conventional sense." Although the event has long been heralded as the potential Armageddon where opposing bishops could finally duke out a position on sexuality and biblical fidelity, Lambeth's planners intentionally left out any opportunity to produce a concluding statement, apparently turning the meeting into a toothless series of conversations...
...entire Lambeth conference to chew over a month later...
...clear that Robinson, for one, wishes he had not been excluded from Lambeth. He will be present in Canterbury as the meeting is held; and on two evenings his fellow American bishops will invite small groups of their colleagues to "meet me, hear a bit of my story, and see that their brother bishop Gene doesn't have horns and wear a dress...
Meanwhile, as befits Minns' ambivalence about the power structure behind Lambeth, the conservative bishop plans to stay away. "I'm not invited," he says, "so why go? I have a life." Yet his life will keep him in the general area. "It just so happens that I do have family in England," he says. "In Nottingham, Penzance, and the Isle of Wight. I'll be there for little bit." Just in case he's needed, one presumes...