Martin O'BrienHomosexuality row dividing Anglicans
The leader of Ireland’s Anglicans has said he believes Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will think carefully before confirming a date for the next Lambeth Conference which brings together Anglican leaders from across the globe.
Debate around the conference, the ten-yearly gathering of more than 600 Anglican bishops, has provoked controversy because of the row over homosexuality that is dividing Anglicans.
The Anglican Communion is split by the battle between its conservative and liberal wings over gay relationships and gay ordination.
Archbishop of Armagh Richard Clarke said he believes that Dr Welby will “evaluate the situation” before confirming a date for the next Lambeth Conference which is due to be held in 2018.
Dr Clarke told The Irish Catholic that Archbishop Welby is still a relatively short time in office and that he needed some time to hear the views of the different Provinces about “what kind of Lambeth do we want, what would be appropriate.”
He said: “I think Archbishop Welby, like the good hard-headed businessman that he was, is taking a step back, trying to survey the scene, and seeing what is the best way for us to take counsel together and in what format.
“He is not a man who is going to be wrong-footed, nor is he going to be frog-marched,” Dr Clarke said.
Archbishop Clarke, who attended two Lambeth Conferences in 1998 and 2008 as Bishop of Meath and Kildare, said he saw the conference as “an opportunity to go further into our roots of friendship and into our common heritage and should not be seen as the definitive magisterium of the Anglican Communion.”
The last meeting in Canterbury in 2008 was marred by boycotts by African and other global south bishops who objected to the consecration of the openly gay bishop Gene Robinson in the United States.
Other bishops and archbishops who did attend, however, were incensed that Bishop Robinson was not himself invited out of an attempt to appease the conservative wing.