Conger

The Archbishop of the West Indies has urged the evangelical wing of the conservative Global South coalition of provinces not to boycott the Lambeth Conference.In an interview broadcast March 12 on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Archbishop Drexel Gomez urged evangelicals to reconsider their position. “I prefer to be at the table where the discussion is taking place than to view it in absentia,” he said, “and the future of Anglicanism - to a large extent - will be determined by the outcome of Lambeth.”

His remarks came the same week as the Diocese of Sydney reaffirmed its decision to boycott the conference, with the Dean of Sydney arguing that the reputation of any bishop who went to Lambeth “knowing that unrepentant homosexual activity is wrong’ would ‘always be tarnished.”

Archbishop Gomez told ABC the Lambeth Conference was the sole vehicle for coming to a “communion-wide consensus” on the issues dividing the church. “If a significant number of bishops stay away from it, then a consensus would be impossible.”

There remained a “need for us to meet together to try and forge a way forward,” he said.

Archbishop Gomez stated that he and Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen were united in their opposition to the innovations in doctrine and discipline taken by the American and Canadian churches on the question of homosexuality. However, Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals were divided on how to address the challenge.

On March 14, the Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen called upon all orthodox Anglican bishops to boycott Lambeth. “I would urge those bishops who believe that unrepentant active homosexuality is wrong not to compromise their own beliefs, the scriptures, the church of God and the holiness of Christ” and accept the Archbishop of Canterbury’s invitation.

To go to Lambeth and be present with those bishops who consecrated Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire is to have “fellowship with false teachers in their wicked work. It cannot help but diminish faithful Christians’ confidence in you as a leader. To believe otherwise is a further illustration of the naivety, which leads you to attend,” he said.

The goal of the American bishops is to overturn the 1998 statement on homosexuality, he said. “They came last time for the final debate and they lost. They come this time with an action that they refuse to repent of. The American bishops did not listen last time they will not listen this time,” he said.

Dean Jensen’s speech was one of four delivered at a briefing held at St. Andrew’s Cathedral Chapter House in Sydney on March 14. Joining the dean were the President of the Anglican Church League, Dr. Mark Thompson, Australia’s former ACC representative Robert Tong, and diocesan spokesman Russell Powell.

Both Archbishop Gomez and the diocese of Sydney deprecated claims that the June GAFCON conference would be an alternative to Lambeth. GAFCON was designed to be “a means for strengthening the conservative view within the communion,” Archbishop Gomez said. Those attending would “come away refreshed and reinforced in their convictions, but it does not mean that that would be the end of the Anglican Communion.”

Sydney’s Russell Powell told the audience at the Sydney Cathedral GAFCON was not envisioned as an alternative to Lambeth, but a gathering whereby traditionalists could find a common way forward to focus on the future of mission throughout the Anglican Communion.