Lambeth Conference’s legitimacy ‘called into question’

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=2366

[Religious Intelligence] 24 Jul 2008--The legitimacy of the Lambeth Conference has been called into question, admitted the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, but he deflected blame towards those who were not there.

While 670 bishops have gathered for the conference, hundreds have rejected the authority of Canterbury and those most virulently opposed to gay bishops will be missing from the key debates.

Dr Williams said: “There is a question about the legitimacy, so to speak, of what emerges from this. It’s a point I put as strongly as I can to the people who are not here in fact; that if they want their voice incorporated in this, this is the way to do it.”

One of the three English Bishops boycotting the conference, the Bishop of Willesden, the Rt Rev Pete Broadbent, said: “If Rowan wants to put that point to me, he should ask me himself.

“It’s not a question of who’s there and who’s not. It’s a question of does anybody feel that what Lambeth does is a definitive statement of what the Anglican Communion believes, because thus far it’s not been the case that people have held to agreements made.”

Bishop Broadbent also rejected the suggestion that by not being there, he could not have his voice incorporated: “I don’t think anyone’s ruled themselves out of the right to comment on the Conference’s conclusions. The bigger question is will Lambeth produce any definitive solutions to the problems of the Anglican Communion, and even if they do, will the Churches in North America take any notice?”