PRIMATES TO MEET IN COUNTY DOWN, IRELAND IN FEB 2005

The Telegraph DUBLIN, 7/16/2004

A major international conference of world leaders of the Anglican Church under the chairmanship of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is scheduled to meet in Northern Ireland next February.

The Belfast Telegraph has learned that primates from all 38 provinces of the Communion will meet in Newcastle, Co Down, to make crucial decisions on the future of the worldwide Church following the report of the Anglican Commission on the divisions caused over sexual issues within Anglicanism.

The historic Primates Meeting in Newcastle is likely to be one of the most significant Church gatherings to take place in Northern Ireland, with its outcome charting the way forward for the future of the entire Anglican Church, which has some 70 million members around the world.

The current Commission on Anglican Structures, headed by the Church of Ireland Primate Archbishop Robin Eames, is scheduled to deliver its highly significant report in October to Dr Williams. This was set up by Dr Williams after the international upheaval within Anglicanism in the wake of the appointment of the openly homosexual Dr Gene Robinson as a bishop in New Hampshire last year.

It is understood that once the report is delivered to Dr Williams it will be analysed in depth within the Communion in order to help the primates come to definitive decisions about the way forward for the Church as a whole at their meeting in Newcastle next February.

The fact that this historic meeting is coming to Ulster is a reflection of the high standing within worldwide Anglicanism of Archbishop Eames.

He is senior primate in the Church and previously chaired with success two other important Anglican commissions - on women's ordination and also on theological issues.

He told the Belfast Telegraph: "I am very pleased that the Primates Meeting will be coming here in February. A number of venues were considered and Northern Ireland was deemed to be the most suitable on this occasion."