At a separate meeting place during General Synod debate, a Kenyan bishop told Anglican Mainstream members of the Church of England synod that he was not optimistic about the future of the Anglican Communion if the Lambeth Commission fails to recommend discipline of the Episcopal Church.

The Rt. Rev. Stephen Kewasis Nyorsok, Bishop of Kitale in the Anglican Church of Kenya, was joined by Archbishop Gregory Venables, Primate of the Southern Cone, Bishop Peter Rwaboma from Uganda, and the Rev. Ellis Brust, chief operating officer of the American Anglican Council, each of whom expressed similar sentiments. If the primates were unwilling to take action against the Episcopal Church, they should, Bishop Nyorsok said, be prepared to see the majority withdraw.

Bishop Nyorsok’s warning prompted mixed emotions. The Rev. David Phillips, a General Synod delegate from St. Albans, and general secretary of the Church Society, noted it “was refreshing to hear each of them speak about the gospel,” but added he believed the Africans were naïve about the way politics tend to work within many Anglican churches in the Northern Hemisphere.