Speaking to The Times of London, the Archbishop of Canterbury has broken his silence on his decision to exclude the spouses of gay bishops from this summer’s Lambeth Conference. He said the decision was “painful” but he was in a “lose-lose” in which he made the choice that would attract the most bishops to the conference.
From The Times (in a largely pay-walled article):
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that he had to make the “painful” decision to ban gay bishops from bringing their spouses to a leading conference to avoid a boycott from traditionalist church leaders.
Breaking his silence over the row, the Most Rev Justin Welby told The Times that he found himself in a “lose-lose situation”.
Christian Today has a report derived from The Times article:
“Well over 90 per cent of the Anglican communion are conservative on issues of sexuality. I’ve invited all the bishops, including those in same-sex marriages. And I had to consider . . . getting as many people as possible there and excluding as few as possible. It’s a lose-lose situation,” he said.
He continued: “I had to take what is a really difficult and painful decision to say, in order for the conference to be as representative as possible and get all the bishops there and not have the risk of some provinces not coming because they felt I was pushing the envelope too far, that I couldn’t ask all the spouses.”
Pictured: Archbishop Justin and his wife Caroline.