With each passing day, it is becoming more apparent that GAFCON is not only necessary, but is growing in importance and strength.

This is not an Anglican sideshow. Any way you cut it, it is an international embarrassment to Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams who acknowledges GAFCON's significance, but would like the bishops to come to Lambeth after they are done in Jerusalem. Minns said the bishops will meet first in Amman, Jordan, June 18 -21 because a number of bishops cannot go to Israel owing to Muslim majorities in their own countries. The rest will join up in Jerusalem (June 22 - 29) "for a pilgrimage to stand in solidarity with those in difficult situations to give them an experience of leadership by coming together."

Bishop Martyn Minns of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, (CANA), an Anglican missionary effort in the US sponsored by the Anglican Church of Nigeria, said in a phone press conference that he expects 200 to 300 bishops and their wives, including a large contingent of lay and clergy delegates, "representing the true leadership of the church and not just bishops," to attend GAFCON. It is thought that well over 1,000 Anglicans from multiple nations will be in attendance. They will represent in excess of 75% of the worldwide Anglican Communion! So far, the CAPA bishops have not issued a formal statement concerning attendance or non- attendance at Lambeth.

By all accounts they will not be going to Canterbury. The leaders of GAFCON - Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen, Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola and Southern Cone Primate Gregory Venables along with other African archbishops, assorted orthodox Episcopal and Canadian bishops - have made it very clear that they believe that going to Lambeth is to be complicit in the spiritual adultery that will certainly take place there.

New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson will show up with his partner, to whom he is now "married", without an official invitation and steal the limelight. He will instigate and be part of a media frenzy, coupled with numerous empathetic Episcopal bishops and a high level British artist that the BBC will plaster all over the nightly news.

Robinson's non-invitation is the best thing that could have happened to him. He can now play the aggrieved (and pathetic) whiner and adopt the mantle of "prophet" pleading his cause to the entire world. He can kick and scream homophobia at Archbishop Williams (who will bow his head in shame) and rail at all the no-show orthodox bishops. If he had been officially invited, he would just have been another sodomite bishop like Otis Charles or any of the other unnamed homosexual bishops in partnered relationships that Katharine. Jefferts Schori, TEC Presiding Bishop, says exist in TEC, and promptly be forgotten.

Robinson will have a public stage and platform to rage against the Anglican Communion. You can be sure he will be ably assisted by any, if not all, the Instruments of so-called unity with an invitational celebrity visit from Dean Jeffrey John, Dr. Williams close personal friend. They and their partners will stand tall in the Anglican marketplace with hands held high in unity proclaiming justice and liberation for all sodomites.

This is why orthodox bishops will not, and should not, attend. They would be crushed like flies, their voices would be muted, and they would be publicly and privately humiliated. They would be made to look and sound uninclusive, homophobic and much worse, if they were to so much as open their mouths. It is also why five orthodox primates wrote to the 25 Evangelical bishops saying, "We are therefore not persuaded by your arguments to attend. It is an assault on our consciences." The five archbishops are Peter Akinola (Nigeria), Emmanuel Kolini (Rwanda), Benjamin Nzimbi (Kenya), Henry Orombi (Uganda) and Gregory Venables (Southern Cone).

In her article "Tips for Takeovers", Lisa Severine Nolland writes about the strategy of the left, ."First, there are the elements of time and will-power. Time is on the side of the 'progressives' who unremittingly chip away at the 'establishment' by wearing them down and wearing them out." Hello! Are the 25 Evangelical Church of England bishops, who want the Global South bishops to come, reading this?

Progressives will proclaim their truths as self-evident and non-negotiable. It will be irrelevant how often the orthodox re-state core convictions or re-affirm essentials. They will be drowned in a sea of high tech, iPod, e-mail, Internet, newspaper, video and nightly newzak agit-prop fawning all over Robinson and his lover.

Egyptian Bishop Mouneer Anis got a whiff of this when he attended the Joint Standing Committee (JSC) in London recently and learned, to his amazement, that the communion is not in a state of crisis and that the covenant process could carry on till 2015! There is no crisis in the Anglican Communion. Puff it's gone. He also learned that by having (or allowing) Mrs. Jefferts Schori in the room all criticism of TEC is silenced. Mrs Schori was able to say, without in fact saying it, that she represented aggrieved LGBT types and oppressed women, as well.

Wrote Nolland: "Changing Attitude, Integrity (two sodomite Anglican organizations) and others are thrilled by the warm welcome they have been given by the organizers of Lambeth, and continue to encourage, cajole, insist etc. that all come. Why? Well, our LGBT folk know the psychological power of physical presence which engages warmly, confidently and non-confrontationally. They are just 'ordinary' people, for pity's sake! And they present their 'stuff' in such a whitewashed way that issues of same-sex sex - which is what we are discussing, after all - gets completely lost from sight."

There you have it.This is why orthodox Anglicans cannot attend Lambeth and seem to be complicit in these events. If they do, their very presence will smell compromise. Said Nolland of Bishop Anis, "Poor man. The decisions have already been made and finalized - it is too late now."

Indeed they have been, which is why Archbishop Jensen and his bishops will not attend Lambeth. For him, it is a matter of "Christian fellowship" and "conscience".

"The decision of our Bishops not to attend the Lambeth Conference in 2008 is the culmination of ten years of thought, prayer and action. We have played our part in challenging false teaching and practice, always hoping that those who have flouted the strong position taken by the last Lambeth Conference would turn back in repentance." He described the crisis over human sexuality as being "of momentous significance". He also reiterated that the Episcopal Church has not repented and that delay tactics only work to the advantage of TEC.

In addition, he also ripped Dr. Williams for allowing those who consecrated Robinson to attend saying it was a double standard not to invite Robinson. Dr. Jensen is right. Robinson will be there to shout it from the roof tops of Canterbury University with a dozen video cameras trained on him. Not to invite Robinson was yet another dumb thing Williams has done, right up there with endorsing some aspects of Shari'a Law into English Common Law. He has given Robinson the best platform possible, All Williams needs to do now is to hand Robinson his own personal megaphone, stand back and allow Robinson and his partner to shout inclusivity for all its worth.

Jensen said the Lambeth Conference is more than a meeting to discuss differences. "It is a fellowship with each other in the name of Christ to express our unity in the Gospel, to break bread with one another and to recognize each other's ministry. It functions to demonstrate and sustain the unity of the Anglican Communion. Those who are invited are given a degree of credibility as being a genuine part of the Anglican family. This also means that their teaching takes on a credibility in the wider world."

He is right, and it is is why it is doubly troubling that Archbishop John Chew of Southeast Asia, a solid Evangelical, has been co-opted into attending.

Jensen also blasted Williams over the non-invitation of some orthodox bishops along with his refusal to deal with those primates who have allowed godly orthodox priests to get thrown out of their parishes.These priests wished only to remain faithful to the word of God and not accede to the church's so-called innovations. They have been forced to leave or seek alternative oversight. "When other bishops have offered to help, by crossing ecclesiastical boundaries and becoming the shepherds of those who object, their efforts have been criticized. Court cases have begun or been threatened against pastors, congregations and diocese which have tried to disassociate themselves from those who have endorsed false teaching in this important matter."

Jensen said that he could not attend and engage in the debates at Lambeth as a matter of conscience and pastoral care to those who have needed to dissociate themselves from bishops and churches.

This is why, at the end of the day GAFCON is needed. It will be a safe place for orthodox Anglicans to worship, pray and plan mission strategies incorporating The Great Commission, recognizing the authority of Scripture and calling the faithless to repentance.

For Network bishops like Robert Duncan, Jack Iker and Keith Ackerman who can no longer in good conscience attend TEC's House of Bishops meetings, GAFCON is another occassion for them to be seen and heard. For a bishop like John-David Schofield who has already departed TEC, GAFCON will be a little bit of heaven on earth. Imagine what sort of a cold shoulder he would get if he were to attend Lambeth? He would be painted as a pariah, shunned and scorned for his brave orthodox stand against pansexuality, while Robinson would be eulogized. For Recife Bishop Robinson Cavlicanti, also scorned by Lambeth, GAFCON will be a place of refuge.

The truth is, if GAFCON did not exist, it would have to be invented. Where else can these godly bishops find a place of refuge? If a new orthodox province is in the making in North America, it too will find no solace in the arms of Lambeth or Canterbury. GAFCON will be its home.

The Anglican Communion may not be officially breaking up, but only a blind man, standing on the edge of a precipice, could not help but note that a Great Divide has opened up in the Anglican Communion. It will not be closed any time soon, if at all.

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