Innovations to church teaching on homosexuality in North America caused roughly 280 of the 880 invited bishops of the Anglican Communion to boycott the Lambeth Conference. According to registration information provided to The Living Church and Church of England Newspaper, the total number of Anglican bishops who pre-registered was only 617, and not all of them were present. The two largest provinces ”“ Nigeria and Uganda ”“ did not send any bishops. There was one bishop registered from Rwanda and five from Kenya. Conference organizers included all of the ecumenical bishops in attendance to arrive at the total of 670 present when registration closed on July 21.
Many of the bishops who were absent and a number who did attend the Lambeth Conference attended the Global Anglican Fellowship Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem in June. GAFCON and the absence of more than 30 percent of the bishops of the Communion were frequently mentioned during the conference. The absence of so many bishops from the Global South increased the proportional representation of bishops from The Episcopal Church to nearly a quarter of the overall total.
For various reasons the conference will probably run a deficit of at least $2 million. A document titled “Lambeth Conference Finances” dated January 2008 estimated that the bishops’ conference would cost about $9 million with the spouses’ conference adding another $2.5 million. The document notes that more than 40 percent of conference participants would require some sort of financial assistance in order to pay the $8,000 conference fee. During the closing press conference Archbishop Williams said conference organizers were studying various ways to cover the probable shortfall.
[blockquote]1 Bishops proved they could speak to each other respectfully and prayerfully.
2. They expressed a strong commitment to remain unified.
3. The Millennium Development Goals demonstration in London on July 24 proved that even “in its current rather wobbly state,†the Anglican Communion was capable of accomplishing significant action and witness.[/blockquote]
And lots of folks got a great workout of their quadriceps walking the sloping decks of the Titanic. Is this for real?
1. Bishops proved they could speak to each other respectfully and prayerfully.
[i] I, Don Gander, am simply amazed! [/i]
2. They expressed a strong commitment to remain unified.
[i] I am glad that the orthodox types are all united [/i]
3. The Millennium Development Goals…
[i] No, I want the earth to be trashed and half the people starving. sacasm/off[/i]
I wouldn’t donate 50 Cents to those three outcomes.
I should have remained in college. Perhaps then I could understand as, for now, I don’t. On the other hand, a woman who did graduate and held some high posts in state government told me once that these types of things (the three goals for 2008) indicate that someone in management is educated beyond their intelligence.
Perhaps.
Don
These are like the basic quailifications to be a human being…I thought you had to be a little bit above the minimum to be a bishop.
Has anyone heard how many of thsoe Endaba groups there were? The numbers in attendance seem very slippery. With 40 members per group there should be some bishop out there with the knowlege of just how many groups there were.
Just morbid curiosity.
Don
Don, I think the figure I saw was 16 groups.
If I find the link, I’ll post it.
–elfgirl
“Accomplishment”? What was done? Oh, they marched.
[blockquote]“Accomplishment� What was done? Oh, they marched. [/blockquote]
And you’ll notice someone else has to pay the tab for their demands.
6. Dan Crawford:
Hey, Dan, just think of all the wait-staff, gardeners, laundrery-workers, etc., who earned a good wages just because the conference happened.
At least they and their families are fed.
🙂
[blockquote]5. The_Elves wrote:
Don, I think the figure I saw was 16 groups.
If I find the link, I’ll post it.
–elfgirl
[/blockquote]
Yes, I’ve read that figure but any time I see it (or a different number) they always have qualifications and/or admit to being unsure of the exact number. One of the problems is that there apparently were guests there who, of course, were not Anglican bishops. Not knowing this number also disqualifies my search for the number of endaba groups.
Why should that list of names and/or diocese be top-secret, anyway?
Don
“I thought you had to be a little bit above the minimum to be a bishop. ” Nail hit on head…thanks Don+. When others would excuse priests and bishops, I would always say that the person in the pulpit had to be leading a better life than me for me to listen. Believe me, that wasn’t requiring too much. Unfortunately, had a few in the pulpit that didn’t meet the requirement…
Accomplishment not listed above:
Demonstration of how to waste millions of pounds and run a deficit while wearing purple shirts, pontificating aimlessly, purportedly representing millions of parishioners, and sinking the SS Anglican Communion a little deeper than it had already sunk.
Lambeth (shambeth) wow, what an accomplishment!
Originally Canon Kearon described the number of Indaba Groups as 15 here
However during the conference this became 16 as is clear from the Conclusion of the Reflections document where the Reflections Group membership is given for each of the Indaba Groups A to P i.e. 16.
Of course this may be partly due to the inclusion of ecumenical bishops in the Indaba Groups as well as in the numbers of attending bishops at Lambeth beefing the figures from the 617 pre-registered Anglican bishops noted by Living Church article posted below this one to the figure of 670 given by the organisers.
And of course the 617 bishops presumably includes the TEC bishops without jurisdiction [those at 815] invited for some peculiar reason.
Two things were accomplihsed at this Lambeth: 1) Rowan Williams will be allowed to proceed in his absurdly overpaid position, and will therefore draw an absurdly high pension; 2) Ditto for ALL the TEC bishops (crazy left-wing through crazy right-wing): that was ALL that was ‘accomplished’ for some $12 MILLION dollars.
Hopefully, the laity will take note and ‘vote’ with their checkbooks! STOP SUPPORTING THESE CRAZY PEOPLE WITH YOUR MONEY!!!