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LAMBETH: "Not Respectful" - Bishops React to Archbishop Orombi
By Hans Zeiger in Canterbury
www.virtueonline.org
August 1, 2008
CANTERBURY-Following an article in today's Times of London by Ugandan Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, who is boycotting the Lambeth Conference, some bishops shared their reactions with VirtueOnline.
Orombi wrote that the Church of Uganda was absent from Lambeth because it could not be in communion with The Episcopal Church, and "maybe our absence will speak louder than our words." While most bishops surveyed had not yet read Orombi's article, those who had were forthright in their opinions.
A bishop of The Episcopal Church who refused to identify himself said, "I saw it and I thought that it was not respectful."
The Rt. Rev. John Flack, a former director of the Anglican Center in Rome and the Archbishop's former representative to the Holy See, said, "I think he's coming from such a different starting place than most people here, but I'm not where he is. I can't just access Scripture in a blank-page way without the influences that surround it."
Another bishop criticized conservative Anglicans for their unwillingness to join the conversation about the place of sex in the Communion. "They were very strong words, I must say, especially since the Archbishop [of Canterbury] has tried to keep the church together," said the Rt. Rev. Ragnar Persenius, Bishop of Upssala, in Communion through the Swedish Lutheran Church. "I wonder what conservatives are doing to keep the church together. They do not seem to contribute to a solution. Some are not even speaking to others. Although they have serious theological disagreements, they also have to get into the conversation."
As for his sense of the prevailing opinion at Lambeth, Persenius said that "most people attending this Conference want to stay together."
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