If Jefferts Schori is at meeting, I won’t come, says Primate

Primates from the Global South are contemplating a boycott of the next Primates’ Meeting because the US Presiding Bishop, Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori, will be present.

The Archbishop of the Indian Ocean, the Most Revd Ian Ernest, has confirmed that he will not attend the meeting, due to take place in Dublin, 25-31 January.

Archbishop Ernest said last week that he had written to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the summer to convey his distress at the election in the United States of the Rt Revd Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian, as Bishop of Los Angeles. He had urged Dr Williams to exclude Dr Jefferts Schori from future Primates’ Meet­ings.

“There were conditions attached in that letter,” he said last week, “and I can confirm I will not attend if those conditions are not fulfilled.”

Dr Jefferts Schori has already con­firmed that she will attend the meeting.


Primates of the Global South are expected to meet this month to discuss whether they will refuse en masse to attend.

To read more, click here.

I am inclined to agree with David Anderson. Boycotting this meeting might prove counter-productive. Avoiding a confrontation with the Presiding Bishop and the Archbishop of Canterbury has not served the global South Primates very well. The liberals will exploit their absence. The global South Primates do better to show up and speak out. They can always walk out if it comes to that.