Irish evangelical leader Bishop Harold Miller of Down and Dromore conceded his decision to attend the Anglican Lambeth Conference “did not make sense” in light of the agenda and invitation list put forward by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but it was important to “give it one more chance” so as to preserve the gathering’s “moral authority.”In his Presidential Address to the Synod of the Diocese of Down and Dromore on June 19, Bishop Miller noted this month’s Lambeth Conference would be marked by the absence of a “quarter of our bishops."
He was “deeply saddened” by their decision as it would undermine the “moral authority” of the Conference, as well as excluding the voices of the most vibrant churches in the Communion.
However, he also expressed concerns about the conference as planned, noting it had been recast into a “retreat-come-training-conference and a meeting and listening place for bishops.”
The agenda “bothers me,” he said, asking “Who is doing the ‘training’ and how is it going to be ‘slanted?”
He also asked what “listening” meant when the Episcopal Church “does not seem to have listened? Does it mean ‘you must keep on listening till you come round to a particular point of view?’ Is it worth the vast sums of money being expended simply to do something to keep the show on the road?”
The decision to exclude the Bishop of Recife, Robinson Cavalcanti was of particular concern. “He, like so many others, including the theologian Jim Packer, has been ‘removed’ by an intolerant ‘liberalism’.
On the other hand, the bishop of a Canadian diocese, New Westminster, cited in the Windsor Report, having applied legislation for same-sex blessings in some churches in his diocese, will be there. Plus, the two or more Bishops from California who have just affirmed the same way forward these past weeks,” Bishop Miller noted.
However his decision to attend Lambeth arose from a desire to “stand in solidarity” with the other bishops of the Church of Ireland and to support the Lambeth Conference. Nor was he prepared to see a lessening of the Conference’s moral authority as he was “prepared to give it another chance.”
“If I’m honest, I do not see how our Communion will, or can, hold together with people going more and more out on a limb. I am aware that such people are creating disunity within the Communion and ecumenical distress with other churches, and concern in other churches who relate to us. But I don’t want to give up hope, just yet,” Bishop Miller explained.
The conference begins July 15 in Canterbury.
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