Conservative Anglican leaders are pressing ahead with plans to hold their own conference of Anglican bishops, according to a source familiar with the details who spoke today with a reporter for The Living Church.
 
Details of the meeting were first revealed in the Telegraph, a British daily newspaper. The meeting would probably be held somewhere in the Middle East in June and is not intended as an alternative to the Lambeth Conference. the source said, although it is likely that at least some who attend the meeting in June will not attend the Lambeth Conference the following month.
 
In his Dec. 14 letter to the primates, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams seemed to imply that the best place for the Anglican Communion to work out its differences was at the Lambeth Conference, which is scheduled to meet in England July 16 through Aug. 4.
 
Many traditionalists have been lukewarm toward the conference since the invitation list and other details were announced in May. To date, about half the bishops eligible to attend have informed the Anglican Communion Office that they plan to do so. In his Advent letter, Archbishop Williams sought to reassure skeptics that the meeting would not avoid discussion of difficult issues. Failure to attend, Archbishop Williams, said could be interpreted as “a refusal of the cross.”
 
Archbishop Williams repeated his intention not to extend an invitation to Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire or to any of the bishops who have been consecrated specifically to serve Anglicans in North America who do not wish to be part of either The Episcopal Church or the Anglican Church of Canada. The letter is silent with respect to Bishop John-David Schofield of San Joaquin. On Dec. 8, clergy and lay delegates to the San Joaquin annual convention voted to leave The Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Province of the Southern Cone.
 
During a Dec. 14 interview with TLC, Bishop Schofield said he assumed he was still invited. Bishop Schofield said he had indicated his intention to attend Lambeth shortly after he first received his invitation last May.
 
At press time, the Anglican Communion Office had not returned messages concerning the status of Bishop Schofield’s invitation.
 
Steve Waring