Same-Sex Spouses of Bishops Excluded from Lambeth Conference
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s 2019 decision to not invite the spouses of bishops in same-sex marriages to attend the Lambeth Conference seems to be holding.
With just a little over one month to go before bishops from around the 85,000,000 members of the Anglican Communion arrive in England for the decennial Lambeth Conference, Welby shows no sign of giving in to the calls from revisionist bishops to invite same-sex spouses. Archbishop Linda Nicolls, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said that it was “unfortunate” that such spouses were not invited.
Archbishops from Nigeria, Rwanda, and Uganda have announced their refusal to attend as long as bishops from the liberal provinces that have formally approved same-sex marriage will be in attendance. The Church in Wales, Scottish Episcopal Church, Episcopal Church USA, Anglican Church of Canada, Church of Aotearoa (New Zealand) have all changed their canons to permit same-sex unions. Other provinces have portions of their jurisdiction where such is over-looked but not formally approved.
The Church of England and Church of Ireland have been under pressure to change but have resisted. Movements in support of the innovation of faith and doctrine continue to campaign but do not appear to be gaining ground except in the secular media. Last year’s election for members in the General Synod of the Church of England saw an increase in support of the biblical position and the Church of Ireland’s General Synod has voted down and changes in support by 2-1 margins on three occasions.
