But then the upcoming Lambeth Conference will hardly be conventional.

The Archbishop of Canterbury himself played down its significance in his letter of invitation. He wrote: "It is not a formal Synod or Council of the bishops of the Communion, which would require us to be absolutely clear about the standing of all the participants. An invitation to participate in the Conference has not in the past been a certificate of doctrinal orthodoxy. Coming to the Lambeth Conference does not commit you to accepting the position of others as necessarily a legitimate expression of Anglican doctrine and discipline, or to any action that would compromise your conscience or the integrity of your local church."

The conference already feels more like a graduate seminar with discussion groups, or "ndabas" as they will be called. So the inevitable question is asked: "Precisely what will be the value of any of its pronouncements?" Perhaps the Archbishop does not want them to be particularly momentous. In which case perhaps he gives comfort to those who do not think any previous pronouncements of Lambeth Conferences are momentous. There are those who continually downplay the significance of Lambeth 1.10. Are we seeing the dumbing down of the Lambeth Conference? In which case, why all the expense and effort? The African Bishops have said in The Road to Lambeth (see below): "There is no point, in our view, in meeting and meeting and meeting and not resolving the fundamental crisis of Anglican identity."

There are significant omissions from the invitation list so far. Bishops who have stood up for orthodox Christian faith and practice against the errors of The Episcopal Church have not been invited: these are 6 bishops of the Anglican Mission in America, Bishop Martyn Minns of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, and also Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti of Recife, Brazil who stood out against the decisions of The Episcopal Church against the province of Brazil and was derecognised by the province as a result.

The AMiA bishops are members of the House of Bishops of Rwanda and the CANA Bishops are members of the House of Bishops of Nigeria. The Nigerian Primate has said "the withholding of invitation to a Nigerian bishop, elected and consecrated by other Nigerian bishops will be viewed as withholding invitation to the entire House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria."

Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire has also not been invited. But he may be invited as an observer it has been suggested. But the quarrel is not with Gene Robinson.

The Archbishop of Uganda has already said: "We note that all the American Bishops who consented to, participated in, and have continued to support the consecration as bishop of a man living in a homosexual relationship have been invited to the Lambeth Conference. These are Bishops who have violated the Lambeth Resolution 1.10, which rejects "homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture" and "cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions." Accordingly, the House of Bishops of the Church of Uganda stands by its resolve to uphold the Road to Lambeth" a paper which was adopted by the Council of the Anglican Provinces in Africa in 2006. Between them Nigeria and Uganda account for 130 bishops, or 15% of the total, and represent 26 million churchgoing Anglicans, about half the church going Anglicans in the world.

Can anything be done? Archbishop Williams wrote that "with the recommendations of the Windsor Report particularly in mind, I have to reserve the right to withhold or withdraw invitations from bishops whose appointment, actions or manner of life have caused exceptionally serious division or scandal within the Communion." If he were to withdraw invitations to the 60 consecrators of Gene Robinson, he would remove a cause of stumbling for at least 130 of his Episcopal colleagues.

It remains of course to be seen what other African Archbishops and also English Bishops who strongly disagreed with the consecration of Gene Robinson themselves and many of whom have partner diocese arrangements with Nigeria and Uganda will do. The Archbishop has asked for their RSVP by July 31.

---Canon Dr Chris Sugden co-authored with Vinay Samuel "Lambeth - a View from the Two Thirds World" on the 1988 Lambeth Conference and was secretary of the Mission Section of the 1998 Lambeth Conference.