Things are not going well at the Lambeth Conference for the Archbishop of Canterbury.Dr. Rowan Williams is increasingly being described as a weak and vacillating character seeking to appease both sides of an irreconcilable divide.
Many have observed that he is doing so in an attempt to keep a unity that has already been broken by the consecration of an active, unrepentant homosexual bishop in the US.
In the meantime the divide between Anglicans adhering to traditional Christian morality, and those who have abandoned such morality in the name of "progress," is to all appearances rapidly widening.
This week, two Anglican Archbishops from the Global South group have lashed out at what they call the hypocrisy of the Lambeth Conference.
Ugandan Primate, the Most Rev. Henry Orombi, who refused to attend the Conference, accused the Archbishop of Canterbury of "betrayal."
In a letter released yesterday from his headquarters in Kampala, the Ugandan Archbishop said flatly, "Those who violate biblical teaching must show repentance and regret before we can share communion with them."
He said that since the broken promise of American presiding prelate Frank Griswold not to consecrate openly homosexual bishops, there have been so many betrayals that the American branch of the Church can no longer be trusted.
"They say that they are not authorising blessings of same-sex unions, yet we read newspaper reports of them. Two American bishops have even presided at such services of blessings. Bishops have written diocesan policies on the blessings of same-sex unions. It is simply untrue to say they have not been authorised."
"That such blessings continue and seem to be increasing hardly demonstrates 'regret', let alone repentance, on the part of the American Church. So, when the Archbishop of Canterbury invited these American bishops to participate in the Lambeth Conference, against the recommendations of the Windsor Report and the Primates' Meeting, and in the face of the unrelenting commitment of the American Church to bless sinful behaviour, we were stunned. Further betrayal."
For the Rt. Rev. Yohana Mkava, Bishop of Kondoa of Tanzania, Gene Robinson's fundamental rejection of Christian doctrine means he cannot be validly ordained as an Anglican bishop.
"He's not in our conference. He's out," said Bishop Mkava.
"I don't recognize him as a bishop, me personally. The whole thing was done out of order, so we don't recognize that. According to the basis of Scripture, supreme authority belongs to the church. So we're not travelling together."
The bishops' complaints were underscored by American bishops at Lambeth who pointed the finger at "conservatives" for daring to oppose the secularist agenda in the Church. This week, two representatives of the US Episcopalian Church excoriated the "conservatives" for opposing the ordination of the openly homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson, whose elevation to the office of bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 precipitated the Communion's current crisis.
One Episcopal bishop, who refused to identify himself, reacted to Bishop Orombi's comments, saying that they were "not respectful."
The Rt. Rev. John Flack confirmed the opinion of many on both sides of the argument that the rift is irreconcilable when he said, "I think he's coming from such a different starting place than most people here, but I'm not where he is. I can't just access Scripture in a blank-page way without the influences that surround it."
The opinions of the Global South bishops are more blunt. Bishop Mkava told David Virtue, an Anglican journalist covering the conference, that most Anglicans in the world are troubled by homosexual ordination. "They are divided. Other people think it is a problem, but for a majority, we see it as a problem."
The decennial Lambeth Conferences were established in the 19th century to express "the mind of the communion on pressing issues of the day" and have no legislative authority on the various branches of the Anglican Church who send delegates.
Many pundits are predicting that this will be the last Lambeth Conference of a unified Worldwide Anglican Communion.
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