BRITAIN: THE ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, risked fresh controversy yesterday as 650 bishops gathered ahead of next week's 10-yearly Lambeth conference amid dark predictions that the Church of England will finally split over women bishops and gay clergy.
However, Gene Robinson, the openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire - who has not been invited to the conference and whose 2003 ordination has prompted a boycott by an estimated quarter of Anglican bishops - predicted that Lambeth 2008 "would drive the press crazy" by avoiding schism and concluding its business "with a typically fudged Anglican consensus".
In a characteristically conciliatory letter Dr Williams wrote to Muslim leaders inviting them to a conference later this year to discuss elements of Christianity which might be "offensive" to them. Some media reports immediately turned the spotlight back on the row sparked earlier this year by Dr Williams' suggestion that some aspects of sharia law might have to be accommodated in the British legal system.
Responding to an overture from Muslim leaders, Dr Williams acknowledged that Christianity had in the past been promoted "at the point of the sword" and "supported by extreme measures".
However, he said the case was similar for Islam and there was "no religious tradition whose history is exempt from such temptation and such failure".
Stressing that violence was incompatible with the beliefs of either faith, the archbishop suggested that once that principle was accepted both faiths could work together to fight prejudice and poverty. However his open letter expressed the belief that the inter-faith conference, planned for October, could create an understanding between the two faiths rather than conclude in an agreed and shared understanding of God.
Meanwhile, prayers for understanding and unity within the Anglican communion will feature in the three-day retreat and meditation beginning today ahead of the formal commencement of business when the Lambeth conference starts on Monday.
Participants will discuss the church's mission and evangelisation, human sexuality, social justice and other issues, including the environment and violence against women, while the bishops will take time out next Thursday to join other faith leaders on a walk through London to highlight the United Nations Millennium Development Goals on world poverty.
It has been predicted that the conference will be overshadowed by the presence on its margins of Bishop Robinson. The fact that he has not been invited has not prevented a boycott by some 230 bishops, including those from Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda.
The leader of the Anglican church in the US acknowledged earlier this week that her church had embarrassed other parts of the Anglican communion with its stance on sexuality.
Presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori also said it was "very awkward" that the communion's only openly gay bishop had not been invited to the gathering.
"We're certainly aware that he will be present in a far larger way not having had an invitation than he would have been if he'd been part of the conference," she said:
"We have embarrassed other parts of the communion because we need to talk about these issues publicly. That's the biggest challenge - to figure out how to live together as a family of churches."
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