CANTERBURY, July 22 (LSN) – Anglican bishops from around the world are meeting in Canterbury, England for a special conference which comes around every ten years, giving Anglican leaders the opportunity to debate important issues pertaining to the faith. The meeting began on Sunday. The most controversial debate expected at the Lambeth Conference is over the Anglican position on homosexuality. Homosexuals have been gearing up for the conference for some time, and are hoping to make some progress during the meeting. Episcopalian Bishop John Spong of Newark, New Jersey is championing their cause, and has Anglicans fearing a show-down during the conference. One of the leading demands they are placing before the 800 Anglican bishops gathered for the conference is ordination of sexually-active homosexuals to the priesthood. The Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, however, has said that “we are going to resist homophobia. We are going to say homosexuals are welcome in the church, in the priesthood, in the working congregations. But as a communion we have said the only lifestyles that are permissible are marriage between a man and a woman or celibacy for life.”
In a letter to Bishop Spong, he warned, “If bishops come to Lambeth wanting a showdown on this issue, I am quite clear that there will follow a very negative and destructive conflict which will put even further back the cause of the people you represent.”