Gay Bishop Will Not Attend Summit

by Rachael Grant

Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, who was told last year that he would not be able to participate in the Lambeth Conference (which will take place at the University of Kent, England), has now announced that he will not have an official role at the meeting at all. ‘Considerable pain’, he says, has been inflicted because of restrictions the organisers wished to impose on his attendance.

The Episcopal Church (which is the Anglican body in the US), have been in negotiations with the Anglican Communion Office, in the hope that Robinson may participate in the event in some capacity.

Leaders have said that he is allowed to be present in the Marketplace of the conference, where stalls are set up by numerous church agencies, as well as one event classed as ‘high profile’, such as the news conference at the twenty day summit. In response, Robinson called this a ‘non-offer’ and declined. He went on to ask: “It makes me wonder, if we can’t sit around a table and study the Bible together, what kind of Communion do we have and what are we trying to save?”

Requests for responses from the Anglican church have been met with silence.

It has been revealed that some people have said they will boycott the meeting if Robinson appears, and Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the leader of the Anglican church, failed to include Robinson in invitations to the Lambeth Conference, apparently to soothe the theological conservatives who believe that homosexual relationships are not allowed according to the Bible.

Bishop Martyn Minns, the head of numerous conservative breakaway Episcopal churches in America, was also not invited because he has aligned himself with the Anglican Church of Nigeria that shares the same points of view.

Some Anglican conservatives, however, are holding their own conference in June, which is seen as a rival choice to the Lambeth. Five of the archbishops involved are boycotting Lambeth because they feel they can not share communion with people who have told Robinson that he can’t attend.

Asking about attendance, Robinson has revealed he will be making his own plans to attend the Marketplace so that he may talk to people and answer any questions. He has urged leaders who have said they will boycott the conference to go ahead and attend.

“For God’s sake, don’t stay away,” were his words on the matter.

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