Anglican Church

Gay bishop shut out of Lambeth Conference

Article published on the 2008-07-14 Latest update 2008-07-14 13:45 TU

Anglican Bishop Gene Robinson
(Credit: Reuters)

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has excluded an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, from attending the Lambeth Conference, which brings together Anglican leaders from all over the world every ten years to discuss issues affecting the church. He says that the ban is to avoid a debate on Robinson's sexuality becoming the focal question of the conference.

This tactic seems to have backfired as Robinson, who is bishop of New Hampshire in the US,  is in Britain on the invitation of churches in the UK to talk about the topic of being an Anglican and gay.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has pleaded for Anglican unity, saying that it was a mistake to exclude Robinson from the conference.

"This was always going to be on the table. There is nothing that was higher on the agenda," Jonathan Bartley, co-director of the UK-based Ekklesia, a religion think tank, told RFI.

Robinson opened a new documentary screened in London on Sunday called For the Bible tells me so, a look at the relationship between religion and homosexuals.