The Archbishop of Canterbury will not attend a joint meeting of members of the U.S. and Canadian houses of bishops next month — a decision that is linked to the turmoil over homosexuality, according to the Primate of Canada.

Approximately 40 American and 40 Canadian bishops will meet April 27-May 1 in Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, Mich., following the spring meeting of the Canadian House of Bishops on April 25. Led by Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold and Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, the bishops will discuss the state of the Church in North America. Archbishop Williams declined the invitation to attend the gathering, Archbishop Hutchison said, citing “the present situation” and scheduling conflicts.

Speaking to the Anglican Journal of Canada, Archbishop Hutchison said the Most Rev. Rowan Williams’ decision was troubling. “I’m very upset because it goes against what I believe is his own personal position (on homosexuality) and he has expressed it pretty publicly and in other circumstances,” Archbishop Hutchison said. “Our invitation went out to him over a year ago and I’m sure that this (other) meeting is not something that he (had) committed (to) before our invitation.”

Archbishop Hutchison also voiced his displeasure at Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone in the Journal article, saying the South American primate’s visit to Vancouver Feb. 27 was a clear violation of the agreement hammered out between the primates. “To think that there’s such a lack of good faith in this discussion is profoundly disturbing,” he said.

Bishop Venables, however, told The Living Church the visit to the Diocese of New Westminster did not violate the terms of the primates’ communiqué, which called for a moratorium on “new initiatives” only.

“The Canadian situation is not a new initiative since I have been working with them since last August when I was in Ottawa,” he said. “We are firmly committed to continue working with the faithful groups in North America until this is resolved in a satisfactory way.”

Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda agreed that the existing cross-border jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada exercised by the provinces of South America, Rwanda, Southeast Asia, Nigeria, Central Africa, Kenya, and Uganda were regularized by the primates’ communiqué and that there would be further consequences if the North American provinces failed to abide by all of the terms agreed to in the communiqué.