First Things: Anglican Summertime Blues
By Jordan Hylden
June 11, 2007

Now that summer at last has arrived, most sensible people have turned their thoughts to beaches, baseball, and the fine art of grilling bratwurst.

Unfortunately for Anglicans, it is their lot to have church politics on their minds. There are dark rumors of schism afoot, hints of plots both liberal and conservative, and more statements issued and meetings held than anyone can possibly keep track of. None of it is enjoyable, and all of it serves as a distraction from baseball (or cricket, depending on how Anglican one is). Be that as it may, any Anglican who cares about his church ought to understand that a great deal depends on what happens in the coming months. If orthodox Anglicans do not hold together, there is a good chance that everything will come apart—and there appears to be a good chance that orthodox Anglicans will not hold together.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, recently sent out invitations to the Lambeth Conference (the once-every-ten-years meeting of all the Anglican bishops), and there are several names not on the list—most notably, Gene Robinson, the actively gay bishop of New Hampshire, and Martyn Minns, the American who recently was installed by the Nigerian church as bishop of a new group in the United States called CANA, one of several collections of conservative parishes that have broken from the Episcopal Church.

This has been cause for a great deal of fuss—from the left, consternation that their standard-bearer has been snubbed and threats to boycott the whole thing; from the right, the same. At the moment it is unclear who will wind up on the final guest list—Williams notably reserved the right to withdraw invitations—and neither is it clear how many bishops will accept. No doubt much will change before the scheduled start of the conference in July 2008. But for now it may be worth outlining what we do and don’t know, what’s at stake, and what to expect in the intervening months. the rest