The Church of Uganda will boycott the 2008 Lambeth Conference if the bishops who participated in the New Hampshire consecration are seated at the gathering of bishops from across the Anglican Communion.

In a statement released on May 30, Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda stated that as Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams had extended invitations to “all the American bishops who consented to, participated in, and have continued to support the consecration” of Bishop V. Gene Robinson in New Hampshire, the Church of Uganda would honor the commitment it made last December and not attend.

On Dec. 9, the Ugandan House of Bishops unanimously endorsed "The Road to Lambeth", a statement prepared by the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA), which stated its members “will definitely not attend any Lambeth Conference to which the violators of the Lambeth Resolution [1.10] are also invited as participants or observers.” On May 22, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria noted his church’s participation in the conference was also in doubt because of its affirmation of the CAPA statement.

A spokesman for the Church of Uganda said Archbishop Orombi was “simply re-stating a decision the [Ugandan bishops] took in December, and, applying it in light of the present circumstances.”

The issue “is not so much” Bishop Robinson, “as it is a church that could make the decision that it made and persist in it, rather than repent. At this point, the violators have been invited, so the archbishop is now applying a decision that had already been made,” the spokesman said.

A member of the Primates’ Standing Committee, Archbishop Orombi has been invited by the American House of Bishops to meet with its members prior to the September 30 deadline set by the primates for compliance with the primates’ communique. Archbishop Orombi’s attendance at the meeting has not been settled, his spokesman noted.

While The Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops meets Sept 20-25 in New Orleans, a spokesperson for the Archbishop of Canterbury could not confirm the dates of the visit to the United States by Archbishop Williams, the Joint Primates-ACC Standing Committee members, and ACC Secretary General Canon Kenneth Kearon.

In a related matter, retired Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. George Carey, queried the rationale for not inviting the bishops of the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) and the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) to the Lambeth Conference.

“My opposition to the consecration of two AMiA bishops related to the setting up of Episcopal activity in the United States which I regarded as unconstitutional and unnecessary,” he wrote in a letter to the editor of Church of England Newspaper.

“Everything has changed in the Anglican Communion as a result of the consecration of Gene Robinson,” Archbishop Carey noted.

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