Bishops ‘weakening body of Christ’ in row over gays and women

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4347017.ece

[Times Online] 17 Jul 2008--Conservative bishops have been accused of breaching their duties and damaging the welfare of Christians as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, fights back against his critics. Anglican bishops arriving for the Lambeth Conference yesterday were told to stop their backstabbing and in-fighting if they were not to “weaken the body of Christ”.

A background paper distributed to 650 bishops and archbishops attending the ten-yearly conference in Canterbury told them to remember that their relationships with each other were “fragile and tainted by sin”.

The paper, commissioned by Dr Williams, made clear that bishops who had transgressed diocesan and provincial boundaries in search of “orthodox” primacy were considered guilty of undermining collegiality. An even worse sin, it suggested, was boycotting the conference.

The paper, written by the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission, represents the start of the fightback by Dr Williams, who has been accused of showing inadequate leadership.

Who serves on the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission? Is it a group dominated by liberals and revisionists? What does this paper portend for the outcome of the 2008 Lambeth Conference? Does it foreshadow the Conference's "reflection statement"?