Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori sent a short email message to members of the House of Bishops, urging “a calm approach” soon after it was announced May 22 that invitations to the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops had been sent and that Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire did not receive one.

In her message, Bishop Jefferts Schori indicated that she does not plan to make a formal statement, at least until after the meeting of the House of Bishops in New Orleans Sept. 20-25.

“It is possible that aspects of this matter may change in the next 14 months, and the House of Bishops’ September meeting offers us a forum for further discussion,” she said.

For the most part, members of the House of Bishops seem to have heeded the Presiding Bishop’s advice. Bishop Robinson, Bishop Thomas C. Ely of Vermont, and Bishop Marc Handley Andrus of California were the only members of the house to have issued public statements by the following day.

Bishop Robinson issued a written statement saying, in part, “While I appreciate the acknowledgement that I am a duly elected and consecrated bishop of the Church, the refusal to include me among all the other duly elected and consecrated bishops of the Church is an affront to the entire Episcopal Church. This is not about Gene Robinson, nor the Diocese of New Hampshire. It is about the American Church and its relationship to the Communion. It is for The Episcopal Church to respond to this challenge, and in due time, I assume we will do so. In the meantime, I will pray for Archbishop Rowan and our beloved Anglican Communion.”

In brief comments to the New York Times, Bishop Ely said he was having difficulty making a distinction between his status and that of his colleague from New Hampshire. “I think there’s still time to try to work this through,” he said, as quoted by the Times. “I would hope there is.”

In an entry posted on his website, Bishop Andrus said the exclusion of Bishop Robinson was a step backward and would have implications for the future of the Communion.

“The isolation and exile of Bishop Robinson rebukes the bright vision of the unity of the Church, and subsitutes the mechanism of the diabolic, the shattering of communion and integrity,” Bishop Andrus wrote. “I cannot overemphasize how important it is to meet this action on our Archbishop’s part with the weapons of the spirit. I will be praying that my response and our response will be in solidarity with Bishop Robinson, mindful of our relatedness worldwide, full of shalom, and creative, in the manner of Jesus Christ.”

Shortly after the announcement, Integrity, an advocacy group seeking the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons in the life and work of The Episcopal Church, proposed a boycott.

“Integrity calls on all the bishops and the leadership of the Episcopal Church to think long and hard about whether they are willing to participate in the continued scapegoating of the gay and lesbian faithful as the price for going to the Lambeth Conference,” stated the Rev. Susan Russell, Integrity president. “It is purported to be a conference representing bishops from the whole Anglican Communion. That can’t happen when Rowan Williams aligns himself with those in the Communion such as Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who violate human rights while explicitly excluding gay and lesbian voices from their midst.

“Our bishops must ask themselves this question: ‘Is complicity in discrimination a price they are willing to pay for a two-week trip to Canterbury?’” she wrote.