"To add to our reservations about the 2008 Lambeth Conference, we note the huge expense of such an event. Our African churches are asked to divert funds from much needed work of evangelization and charity to a 3-week meeting which has no authority and which is blatantly ignored by "autonomous" member churches. In some cases, poorer provinces are "assisted" by donors from the West who have a deliberate agenda of buying silence from these churches."

In an interview with Times Religion writer Ruth Gledhill, Akinola put it bluntly saying that his 120-plus bishops will boycott next year's Lambeth Conference unless the US Church halts its liberal agenda. That is not going to happen. Every new statement from Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori, TEC Primate, further entrenches the HOB in its liberal beliefs.

While the Province of Rwanda is the only Province that has issued a definitive statement about not attending Lambeth, the Anglican provinces of Uganda and Nigeria have both issued statements intimating they will not attend, if V. Gene Robinson and those who consecrated him are also invited. It is not just the Robinson consecration but also those who consecrated him, that is the point at issue. "We are frankly disappointed that the announced plans of the Lambeth Design Team to avoid discussion of Communion order and discipline, which has been clearly strained to the breaking point. We are disappointed that the central issue of an Anglican Communion Covenant is not front-and-centre on the agenda of the Conference. If any group should be expected to consult on these most important issues, it should be the assembled bishops of the Communion.

"We conclude that if a regular all-bishops' conference is to continue in the Anglican Communion, it should be held in the Global South, where the costs are much less and the local economy can benefit; that it be shorter in duration; and that every church be required to pay its own way (we in CAPA will take care of our own genuinely needy members). Dr. Rowan Williams has ignored the convictions of his fellow orthodox Primates; he has ignored the findings of the Windsor Report which called for delegated pastoral oversight, which the TEC House of Bishops rejected. The Episcopal Church has rejected outright any notion that homosexuals and lesbians would not have access to all levels of the church including the episcopacy and its expressed "regret" for straining the bonds of affection was caveat-ed with words saying they would never back down from the church's present course and direction in order to remain within the Communion. They also refused to withdraw themselves from representative functions in the Anglican Communion. They also rejected any notion of a moratorium on the election and consent to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate who is living in a same gender union or authorizing rites for same-sex union until some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges."

Orthodox Primates also believe that Dr. Williams' action in announcing the list of bishops who would attend Lambeth was entirely premature and ignored the recommendations of the Dromantine Declaration (Feb. 2005) and the Dar es Salaam Communique (Feb. 2007) and the findings of the Windsor and Covenant process toward Lambeth 2008 .

In short the Episcopal Church wants and expects to remain full members of the global Anglican Communion without backing down from positions unacceptable to the vast majority of Anglicans. It would also appear that Dr. Williams is prepared to accept that.

He has pre-empted the Sept. 30 deadline set by the Primates in Tanzania and resolved it unilaterally without regard to the primates.

In a statement made by the Rwandan Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini, he said this: "The invitations to Lambeth 2008 not only contravene the Lambeth1998 Resolution 1.10 but also the positions taken in the communiques that have been agreed upon in previous Primates' meetings and in the "Road To Lambeth" document prepared for and accepted by the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) bishops."

In response, Williams said to Kolini that he (Williams) was obliged to act because of the instruments of unity, but he has now ignored the four Instruments of Unity by inviting everybody, except Bishop Robinson. "He is talking out of both sides of his mouth," said an orthodox Episcopal bishop. "He has ignored the Dar es Salaam communique that he himself signed and he has pre-empted all three of these statements by his invitation to Lambeth before the HOB has even been given a chance to respond to the four instruments of unity.

"Therefore one cannot be surprised that those who have labored so long in money and time and energy to keep the Anglican Communion together now feel betrayed. Together the principle of unity has been declared null and void by the preemptory action of the Archbishop of Canterbury by making the invitations to people who consecrated Robinson and the bishops who consecrated him and he has shown no inclination what is required by these four instruments of unity."

One of the findings of the Windsor Report concluded that, "There remains a very real danger that we will not choose to walk together. Should the call to halt and find ways of continuing in our present communion not be heeded, then we shall have to begin to learn to walk apart."

That, it would seem is now a reality.

Based on preliminary figures and guestimates of who might comprise and attend an alternative Lambeth in either London (Jensen suggestion) or Lagos (Akinola suggestion), VOL, after consulting a wide number of sources, concluded that the best and most comprehensive figure would be in the vicinity of 300 plus bishops.

Here is the breakout:

Nigeria: Between 122 - 130 Archbishops and bishops
Rwanda: 9
AMiA: 4
Uganda: 31
Kenya: 31
Central Africa: 16
Australia: 1
Burundi: 5
NZ: 1
Congo: 6
Indian Ocean: 5
North India: 26
New Guinea: 5
South India: 21
Southern Cone: 7
Tanzania: 17
Sudan: 24
West Africa: 12
Other offshore bishops created by African Primates for North America congregations: 11
The possible inclusion of leading Continuing Anglican bodies in the U.S.: 20

(Please note these figures are estimates only based on the most recent information available. They were compiled from a number of sources, and may not be 100% accurate. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that all these archbishops and bishops would attend an alternative Lambeth, but if such were the case, a figure of between 300 and 350 would be feasible.)

Interestingly enough the primates who did not participate in Holy Communion in Tanzania were Peter Akinola (Nigeria), John Chew (Southeast Asia), Benjamin Nzimbi (Kenya), Justice Akrofi (West Africa), Greg Venables (Southern Cone), Emmanuel Kolini (Rwanda) and Henry Orombi (Uganda). Donald Mtetemela (Tanzania) and Bernard Malango (Central Africa) also did not take communion. These provinces account for nearly two-thirds of the active membership of the Anglican Communion.

Said AMiA Bishop John Rodgers, "What a shocking mess! It is not just TEC! God is humbling us. We have assumed a global Anglicanism that is true and good and turned a blind eye to its actual condition. We have been idolatrous about the Anglican Communion. The truth is that for us to be faithful Anglicans we can no longer be simply identified with the present Anglican Communion. It must be reformed or divided."

END