Religious News Service, January 2018
It was announced today that preparations are well underway for the traditional not-the-Alternative Lambeth Conference. The Conference (last convened in Jerusalem 2008) traditionally protests developments in the United States and Canada which in traditional Anglican language are said to ‘impair’ communion in the worldwide federation of Churches. These ‘developments’ traditionally take no account of doctrinal deviations (Anglicanism embraces a wide diversity of opinions about the resurrection of Jesus, his virginal conception, and even about the existence of God). Real impairment of Communion, for Anglicans, as commentators have been pointing out for some time, involves Sex.
At the traditional dis-invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the /Moderator of the Greater Sydney Presbytery (the former Archdiocese of Sydney has permitted lay celebration of the Lord’s Supper since 2010) /VYrs Daphne Jensen (grand-daughter of the last Archbishop, Peter Jensen and niece of the Dean of the Cathedral) outlined the traditional ‘Cause of Disaffection’.
The appointment of a bisexual bishop with two civil partners to the Diocese of San Diego goes quite contrary to Lambeth 2008, Resolution 26b, which required bishops in alternative lifestyles to be monogamous. Bishop Samantha has pointed out that monogamy and true bisexuality are incompatible. But whilst affirming, in line with Lambeth 2008, the full involvement of LGBT bishops, we are clear that the guidelines established there should be adhered to.’
This appointment is an affront to the Gospel,’ claimed Archbishop Precious Akulele, of the Province of Central Africa (Old Part), a sponsor of the Conference. ‘We are asserting our right to be loyal Anglicans and to stage a not-the-Alternative Lambeth.’
The Conference, at Surfer’s Paradise, Northern New South Wales, is open to Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics with a sufficient degree of prurience.