Responses from far and wide
Bishop Tom Butler of Southwark writes:
It is maintained that there is a North/South division. This is nonsense. The African primates attending Gafcon came from a narrow tropical belt. The majority of African primates were not there and the language of the manifesto would be anathema to other influential African church figures such as Desmond Tutu. Reading the manifesto, you would form the impression that the other Anglicans had moved away from the core beliefs of the Church, grounded in scripture. This, too, is nonsense.
The Most Rev. Phillip Aspinall, Primate of Australia, thinks the conservatives should attend the Lambeth Conference, “if they regard themselves as Anglicans, which I understand they do.”
Theo Hobson believes conservatives are “moving in for the kill.” Robert Pigott conjectures they’re “hoping to lie in wait.”
Meanwhile, there was a dust-up at the meeting of conservative clergy and prelates at a London church when a gay rights group demanded entrance.
But don’t get the wrong idea. Archbishop Peter Jensen says that just because GAFCONS leaders want gays and lesbians put in jail, and can’t bring themselves to condemn violence against them, that doesn’t mean they are homophobic.