Lambeth Conferences - Opposition

Opposition

In 2008, four Anglican primates announced that they intended to boycott the Lambeth conference because of their opposition to the actions of Episcopal Church in the USA (the American branch of the Anglican church) in favour of homosexual clergy and same-sex unions. These primates represent the Anglican provinces of Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. In addition, Peter Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia and Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester, among others announced their intentions not to attend.

The Global Anglican Future Conference, a meeting of conservative bishops held in Jerusalem in June 2008 (one month prior to Lambeth), was thought by some to be an "alternative Lambeth" for those who are opposed to the consecration of Robinson. GAFCON involved Martyn Minns, Akinola and other dissenters who consider themselves to be in a state of impaired communion with Lambeth, ECUSA and Canterbury. The June 2008 church blessing of Peter Cowell, an Anglican chaplain at The Royal London Hospital and priest at Westminster Abbey, and David Lord, an Anglican priest serving at a parish in Waikato, New Zealand, renewed the debate one month prior to the conference. The Reverend Martin Dudley who officiated at the ceremony at St Bartholomew-the-Great maintained that the ceremony was a "blessing" rather than a matrimonial ceremony.