The potential absence of a good number of Anglicans from the Global South and other regions may mean a global body that is no longer Anglican, one archbishop has warned.
"The official Anglican representation will be synonymous with the American Episcopal Church and that movement is increasing if Global South traditionalists don't attend. Many believe that if that happens the communion will no longer be Anglican," said West Indies Archbishop, the Most Rev Drexel Gomez, referring to the 2008 Lambeth Conference that some conservative leaders have threatened to protest.Archbishop Gomez believes the 77 million-member Anglican Communion is at a turning point and has grave doubts it will survive in its present form, according to VirtueOnline, a voice for global orthodox Anglicanism.
"We cannot go on with an ambiguousness and intolerance that is only increasing," he said at a Festival of Faith gathering in Bladensburg, Maryland, over the weekend.
Anglican leaders in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda as well as the Church of England have either stated their rejection of invitations to the 2008 Lambeth Conference or their plans to do so and boycott. They argue that they will not join US Episcopal bishops who are "unrepentant" of their recent actions, which include the 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop.
"In planning for Lambeth we don't know who is going or coming, but if there is a large group who will not attend it will change the structure and significance of the Lambeth Conference," said Archbishop Gomez. "The Archbishop of Canterbury wants to focus on spirituality and mission.
"The big question is how can you have a meeting of the leaders of the communion in one place while refusing to address the issues that are tearing the communion apart and preventing the Anglican Communion from moving forward?"
Some have criticized conservative Anglicans for their stance against homosexuality and accused them of being homophobic, but Archbishop Gomez clarified that they are not against homosexual persons.
And the issue is about "homosexual practice" – a lifestyle about that is incompatible with Scripture, as the Anglican Communion affirms. But beyond the sexuality itself, Archbishop Gomez pointed to the context and biblical revelation attached to homosexual practice.
