Weaving a Tangled Web

http://www.churchsociety.org/churchman/documents/Cman_122_1_Editorial.pdf

[Churchman] 23 May 2008--The year of grace 2008 is now upon us and we still cannot say for sure what will happen to the Lambeth Conference, which is due to open in mid-July.
Voices have been raised urging that it should be called off but, however
desirable that might be, it seems unlikely. It is said that the First World War
could not be stopped by last-minute appeals to common sense because the
trains were already rolling and the timetables had to be observed. Something
similar seems to be the case with Lambeth 2008. The university facilities would
have been booked some time ago and to cancel them now would be costly. It
might also create suspicion and ill-will towards the church which would
compromise the availability of the venue ten years from now, and those who
plan conferences have to bear such things in mind. So whatever happens to the
Anglican Communion in the meantime, it seems a safe bet that the decennial
meeting of its bishops will go ahead as scheduled.

Who will attend it is another matter, but the Western liberals will no doubt
turn out in force, as will their few supporters from the developing world. How
many conservatives will show up is harder to predict, but many of them will
remember the French proverb les absents ont toujours tort (‘the absent are
always wrong’) and decide that it is better to attend and put their case than to
stay away and lose by default. This will almost certainly mean having to
tolerate the presence of Gene Robinson, the Bishop of New Hampshire who,
although he has conspicuously not been invited, will undoubtedly turn up and
be allowed in, if only to prevent the media scandal which would otherwise
ensue. Whether similar ‘crash the party’ tactics will be employed by uninvited
conservatives like Robinson Cavalcanti of Recife is hard to say, but is more
doubtful, if only because conservatives tend to be more scrupulous about such
things than their opponents and less given to making provocative gestures. The
American missionary bishops who have been ordained by African churches are
not so predictable on this score, but as they lack the covert support which Gene
Robinson receives from the administrative hierarchy of the Anglican
Communion, it is perhaps unlikely.