The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has warned conservative Anglicans that they risk breaking ties with the Archbishop of Canterbury and with historic Anglicanism if they boycott the 2008 Lambeth Conference.
Divisions over homosexuality are taking their toll on the Anglican Communion and have resurfaced in the face of the forthcoming Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Communion's 10-yearly meeting.
The Anglican Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, warned earlier in the year that he may lead a boycott of the Lambeth Conference 2008, after two controversial bishops did not receive invitations from the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams to join the meeting.
Dr Sentamu appealed to conservative Anglican members to join the 2008 meeting, saying in an interview with The Daily Telegraph that if they did a no-show then "they would be the ones voting with their feet and saying, as far as we are concerned, we are the true Anglicans".
"Anglicanism has its roots through Canterbury," he said. "If you sever that link you are severing yourself from the Communion. There is no doubt about it."
He told the newspaper that disagreements between conservatives and liberal north Americans were not core issues and that Anglicans should be able to remain in the same Church so long as Anglican bishops did not deny the basic Christian doctrines.
Dr Sentamu reaffirmed that primates had always regarded the Archbishop of Canterbury as "a primate among equals but nonetheless as primus inter pares [first among equals]".
"If that goes and they think they can then say they are Anglicans, that is very questionable," he said. "Whatever you set up, I don't think it could ever be called the Anglican Communion.
"So I am hoping that my brothers and sisters, whatever they are trying to set out, will come to the Lambeth Conference."
