AMiA and CANA: Not in the Anglican Communion

No Lambeth Invitation for AMiA or CANA, as well as Robinson

The Bishop of New Hampshire will not be invited to participate in the 2008 Lambeth Conference, according to the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary of the Lambeth Conference.

Invitations to the conference were mailed May 22 to more than 800 bishops of the Anglican Communion by the conference’s host, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. The Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) and the Rt. Rev. Charles Murphy and his suffragans, the bishops of the Anglican Mission in North America (AMiA) will not receive invitations either, the conference organizers said.

Archbishop Williams said he had reserved the right “to withhold or withdraw invitations from bishops whose appointment, actions or manner of life have caused exceptionally serious division or scandal within the Communion,” but did not name names.

The bishops of the AMiA would not be invited to Lambeth because of the decision taken by Archbishop George Carey in 2000. Archbishop Carey “wrote to them saying he could not recognize their ministry” and that their “consecrations were irregular,” Canon Kearon explained. This decision was “confirmed at Oporto” by the primates in 2000, and the “decision was already fixed” by Archbishop Williams’ predecessor. The case of CANA Bishop Martyn Minns exhibits “no difference” from the AMiA and he falls into the same category, Canon Kearon said.

- The Rev. George Conger of The Living Church

Editor's Note - An an essential 'instrument of unity' for the Anglican Communion, the Lambeth Conference, since its inception in 1867, has served as the ultimate symbol of unity and communion within the Canterbury-centred structure. Exclusion from Lambeth is tantamount to exclusion from the Anglican Communion as a legally-constructed and organised body. Bishops of the Church of England in South Africa, beginning with Bishop Colenso, Bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church and its derivative bodies, and Bishops of the Continuing Churches have never been invited to Lambeth. The Bishops of AMiA and CANA now share the same distinction. Whatever claims may be made to the contrary, it is now quite clear that neither the AMiA nor CANA can legitimately claim to be full constituent members of the Anglican Communion in full communio with Cantaur. For all intents and purposes, AMiA and CANA have become the very thing they assert themselves not to be, an evangelical and charismatic 'continuing' church.