Canon Paul: The program today is al little altered. There is another Reflection at 2:00pm and then they will go back into their indaba groups for a second session. This is not their usual pattern.

The 1:30pm conference will feature ++Drexel Gomez and ++Trevor Mwamba from Botswana to speak about the Covenant process.

As far as I know any outstanding questions have been answered. If you have more please let me know afterwards

As a guest this morning we have Gregory Cameron, the Deputy Secretary of the Anglican Communion Office

Read it all and our thanks to Matt for all his hard work in making this available.

The once-a-decade gathering of the world’s Anglican bishops in Canterbury has been described as inadequate by those attending it, who yesterday recommended that a smaller group meet every three years.

It is thought that a “mini” Lambeth would allow bishops to have more frequent contact and discussions when attempting to resolve disputes over issues such as the ordination of gay clergy.

The suggestion was one of several to come out of an ongoing process, called Reflections, designed to gain consensus from group meetings involving the 670 bishops who have been in Canterbury for more than a fortnight.

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he global Anglican Communion got through its scheduled day of reckoning over homosexuality yesterday with Toronto Bishop Colin Johnson giving credit to the Holy Spirit for avoiding an open split between liberal and conservative bishops.

Less bullish observers of the church’s decennial Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England – attended by more than 600 bishops – chalked up the absence of rift to a boycott by 230 prelates who say homosexuality is against God’s will, and a conference structure carefully crafted to rule out decisions being made.

Bishop Johnson, acting as spokesman for fellow liberals at the closed talks, said he couldn’t speak for any bishops having changed their minds during the one day scheduled for discussion of sexuality but “I think probably some have nuanced their positions. … The conversation continues. We are continuing to engage.

“The third party in the conversation is the Holy Spirit, and in listening to one another and the Holy Spirit we can have an encounter and be transformed.

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TWO CHURCH of Ireland bishops with contrasting views on gay bishops and same-sex blessings have spoken of their optimism as the Lambeth Conference 2008 of the worldwide Anglican community nears its Sunday finish.

Bishop Ken Good of Derry and Raphoe said yesterday he was “quite hopeful” on the conference outcome, and that discussion on the role of the bishop and the mission of the church had been well summarised, but he felt that yesterday the conference was approaching its decisive moment.

The theme for discussion at 15 discussion groups, involving approximately 40 bishops in each, was Listening to God and Each Other: The Bishop and Human Sexuality.

Dr Good felt the diocese of New Hampshire in the US went “too far too soon” in ordaining Gene Robinson as its bishop in 2003.

He believed this was wrong both biblically and strategically, as well as where timing was concerned.

The Bishop of Cork, Dr Paul Colton, said that he too was optimistic where the outcome of the conference was concerned – “as long as someone doesn’t collapse the scrum of process”.

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On Monday afternoon I spoke during the hearing before the Windsor Continuation Group. There were 300 or more bishops in a stuffy sweltering hot room. I was one of the first at the microphone””feeling that we on the conserving end of the church were caught off guard at the first hearing. The thrust of my argument was that there was a profound amnesia among some of my fellow bishops in The Episcopal Church regarding the prior resolutions of Lambeth Conferences and I recounted some of these resolutions from 1968, ’78, ’88, and ’98. That to suggest these resolutions now were not relevant to our life in TEC was specious”” a failure to face the facts and even more sadly, an obstacle to the global mission of the Anglican Communion. A failure to face the facts because a majority of the Bishops of TEC voted for these resolutions that established the ACC and the Primates Meeting (and their enhanced role in mediating crisis), and that even a quick review of the math will show that even a majority of TEC Bishops voted for Resolution 110 itself. To suddenly now take refuge in our provincial polity and resist the Instruments of Unity as they attempt to mend the bonds of affection””strained and broken by the actions of TEC””is bad enough. But more grievous still, to resist the covenant is to thwart the Anglican Communion’s appointment with a God-given destiny. Such retreat into provincialism is the wrong response to this present crisis”¦.To embrace the covenant will not only strengthen the bonds of affection, it will further our mission in Jesus Christ””helping us to live respectfully and responsibly with one another. It brings the inspiration that comes from a godly responsibility freely embraced”¦. Well I won’t give my entire speech but you get the drift of it. What such speeches accomplish beyond getting certain thoughts registered with the Windsor Continuation Process, and getting something off one’s chest, who knows….

There are those who do not want us to make any resolutions whatsoever at this Lambeth. There are also those of us who think that to leave this Conference with no resolution on this crisis before the Anglican Communion will be worse than if we had never come. By the time you get this ENewsletter our Friday Sessions will be mostly over and we will have only Saturday to do whatever hard work we can do to bring some clarity on these matters that affect us all, causing some 250 bishops out of conscience, and representing millions of Anglicans, not even to attend.

The Archbishop has urged us all to grant one another a generous love. A noble thought that few would argue with. Please forgive me, however, if I raise the concern that we may not have left at this Lambeth 2008 such a generous amount of time to exercise such generous love as is necessary to mend the fabric that has been torn. Yet still I trust that our times, as is our love, are in His hands.

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Wonderful stuff.

The Rev. Canon Philip Groves, the facilitator for the Anglican Communion’s Listening Process, told ENS that the goal of the day was for the bishops to have “safe space” in which “to genuinely talk and share what’s on their heart” and “genuinely sharing in one another’s dilemmas and struggles.”

At the beginning of the day’s discussions, the bishops also watched a 10-minute film of people from all over the communion answering the first question from their perspective. About a third of the film’s audio was played for reporters. In that segment, among the opinions expressed were that homosexuality is an abnormality according to the creation story in Genesis, that “these people are also human,” and that “the marginalized of the most marginalized are welcome in the kingdom of God.”

Williams encouraged the bishops to “go deep,” saying “we need to look at what we believe about human nature, human relationships and about God, God’s nature [and] God’s relationship with us.”

“And we need dispassion, not in the sense of being cold and analytical about it but actually trying to see the question whole; not letting our emotions, our prejudices immediately dictate not only a conclusion, but also an attitude towards other people,” he added.

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Like most explosions , however, this one was unfocused and it soon spread into chastising the Episcopal Church for creating all the disagreement in the Anglican Communion and keeping it going. The Episcopal Church was repeatedly charged with not responding to the Windsor process. The actions of our General Convention 2006 in responding to Windsor are not well known and are often received as new information.

The Episcopal bishops in my Indaba received this critique in respectful silence, without defensiveness, and responses actually came from other churches. The gist of the responses was that all of us are shaped in our ministries by the people and culture of our communities. Each of us is struggling to be faithful as God has given us the light. So there were voices of support, but it was a long session.

At hearings and other meetings today, there were calls to reaffirm Lambeth 1:10 or to state that the Windsor moratoria must continue. The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that there will be no voting or legislation. Rather the work of the Indaba groups will be drawn into a final statement that will be refined by an ongoing process of review in our groups and in hearings. Other processes, such as the Windsor Continuation process and the Anglican Covenant process will continue beyond this meeting. For me, the best part of this Lambeth has been the frank, respectful, and sometimes profound conversations of the Bible Study and Indaba groups. I hope we’ll find ways to continue these conversations without forcing a decision now.

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Check it out.

We in the Global South believed the Primates’ Meeting had this authority – the 1988 Lambeth Conference urged the Primates’ Meeting to “exercise an enhanced responsibility in offering guidance on doctrinal, moral and pastoral matters” and the 1998 Lambeth Conference reaffirmed this.

So, it was appropriate, after the American decision in 2003, that the Archbishop of Canterbury convened an emergency meeting of the primates to address the biblical and ecclesiastical crisis into which the Americans had plunged the Anglican Communion. The primates, including the American primate, unanimously advised that the consecration should not proceed. Nonetheless, two weeks later, the primate in America presided at the consecration as bishop of a man living in a same-sex relationship. This was a deep betrayal.

Since that meeting there have been numerous other “betrayals” to the extent that it is now hard to believe that the leadership in the American Church means what it says. They say that they are not authorising blessings of same-sex unions, yet we read newspaper reports of them. Two American bishops have even presided at such services of blessings. Bishops have written diocesan policies on the blessings of same-sex unions. It is simply untrue to say they have not been authorised.

That such blessings continue and seem to be increasing hardly demonstrates “regret”, let alone repentance, on the part of the American Church. So, when the Archbishop of Canterbury invited these American bishops to participate in the Lambeth Conference, against the recommendations of the Windsor Report and the Primates’ Meeting, and in the face of the unrelenting commitment of the American Church to bless sinful behaviour, we were stunned. Further betrayal.

It was clear to me and to our House of Bishops that the Instruments of Communion had utterly failed us.

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Update: George Pitcher has comments in response here.