Bishops snub forum over gay ordination

Archbishop Peter Jensen and his diocesan bishops have snubbed the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, by failing to reply to their invitations to the Anglican church's most important gathering, the Lambeth Conference.

Sydney's bishops were due to reply to the invitations to the 2008 gathering by July 31, but are delaying their response until it is clear whether the church's US arm, the Episcopalians, will back down over the ordination of gay bishops.

The Episcopalians are due to respond formally by the end of September to a request from the church's primates to agree to stop authorising same-sex unions and ordaining anyone living in a same-sex union.

The latter is a reference to the 2003 ordination of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire, despite his living in a same-sex union.

"In view of the real hesitations that we experience in joining with those who have consecrated Bishop Gene Robinson, and with others who have allowed for the blessing of same-sex unions ... we feel that we cannot give an answer to your kind invitation until later in the year," the Sydney bishops wrote.

All bishops in the Anglican church worldwide are invited to the Lambeth conference, which is held every 10 years.

Australia's Anglican primate and the Archbishop of Brisbane, Phillip Aspinall, said yesterday he would attend the conference. "I believe it is only when all of the church's bishops can sit together and enter a dialogue that these matters can progress," he said. The Archbishop of Melbourne, Philip Freier, will also attend. "Not to be there is to risk marginalising yourself from important discussion on real issues," he said.