Editing Lambeth Conference (section)

===Fourteenth: 2008===
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[[File:LambethLarge1.PNG|thumb|The 2008 Lambeth Conference logo]]
*Presided over by [[Rowan Williams]]
*Around 670 bishops present<ref name="Archbishop of Canterbury"/>

The fourteenth conference took place from 16 July to 4 August 2008 at the [[University of Kent]]'s Canterbury campus. In March 2006 the Archbishop of Canterbury, [[Rowan Williams]], issued a pastoral letter<ref>{{cite press release |date=9 March 2006 |title=Archbishop Sets Out Thinking on Lambeth Conference 2008 |url=http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/514 |publisher=Archbishop of Canterbury |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091016003859/http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/514 |archive-date=16 October 2009 |access-date=11 June 2017}}</ref> to the 38 primates of the Anglican Communion and moderators of the united churches setting out his thinking for the next Lambeth Conference.

Williams indicated that the emphasis will be on training, "for really effective, truthful and prayerful mission".  He ruled out (for the time being) reopening of the controversial resolution 1.10 on human sexuality from the previous Lambeth Conference, but emphasised the "listening process" in which diverse views and experiences of human sexuality were being collected and collated in accordance with that resolution and said it "will be important to allow time for this to be presented and reflected upon in 2008".

Williams indicated that the traditional plenary sessions and resolutions would be reduced and that "We shall be looking at a bigger number of more focused groups, some of which may bring bishops and spouses together."

Attendance at the Lambeth Conference is by invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Invitations were sent to more than 880 bishops around the world for the Fourteenth Conference. Notably absent from the list of those invited are [[Gene Robinson]] and [[Martyn Minns]]. Robinson was the first Anglican bishop to exercise the office while in an acknowledged same-sex relationship, and Rowan Williams said it was "proving extremely difficult to see under what heading he might be invited to be around", drawing criticism.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2008/8-february/comment/giles-fraser-lambeth-a-conference-of-shame|title=Lambeth: a conference of shame|last=Fraser|first=Giles|author-link=Giles Fraser|date=6 February 2008|access-date=15 January 2019|website=[[Church Times]]}}</ref> Minns, the former rector of [[Truro Parish|Truro Episcopal Church]] in [[Fairfax, Virginia]], was the head of the [[Convocation of Anglicans in North America]], a splinter group of American Anglicans; the [[Church of Nigeria]] considered him a missionary bishop to the United States, despite protest from Canterbury and the U.S. Episcopal Church.

In 2008, four Anglican primates announced that they intended to boycott the Lambeth conference because of their opposition to the actions of [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church in the USA]] (the American province of the Anglican Communion) in favour of homosexual clergy and same-sex unions.<ref>{{cite press release |title=GAFCON Response to Evangelical English Bishops |url=http://www.anglican-nig.org/main.php?k_j=12&d=156&p_t=index.php? |publisher=Church of Nigeria |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203225843/http://www.anglican-nig.org/main.php?k_j=12&d=156&p_t=index.php%3F |archive-date=3 December 2010 |access-date=11 June 2017 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Davies |first=Matthew |date=15 February 2008 |title=Five primates announce Lambeth Conference boycott |url=http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94975_ENG_HTM.htm |work=Episcopal Life Online |agency=Episcopal News Service |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214173316/http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94975_ENG_HTM.htm |archive-date=14 December 2008 |access-date=11 June 2017}}</ref> These primates represent the Anglican provinces of Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. In addition, [[Peter Jensen (bishop)|Peter Jensen]], Archbishop of [[Anglican Diocese of Sydney|Sydney]], Australia and [[Michael Nazir-Ali]], [[Bishop of Rochester]], among others announced their intentions not to attend.

The [[Global Anglican Future Conference]], a meeting of conservative bishops held in [[Jerusalem]] in June 2008 (one month prior to Lambeth), was thought by some to be an "alternative Lambeth" for those who are opposed to the consecration of Robinson.<ref>{{cite web |last=Hadley |first=Mark A. |title=Future Anglicans unite |url=http://sydneyanglicans.net/news/future_anglicans_unite/ |publisher=Anglican Diocese of Sydney |access-date=11 June 2017}}</ref> GAFCON involved Martyn Minns, [[Peter Akinola]] and other dissenters<ref>{{cite press release |date=24 December 2007 |title=Global Anglican Future Conference in Holy Land Announced by Orthodox Primates |publisher=GAFCON |url=http://www.gafcon.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=6 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081005212926/http://www.gafcon.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=6 |archive-date= 5 October 2008 |access-date=11 June 2017}}</ref> who considered themselves to be in a state of impaired [[Communion (Christian)|communion]] with the American Episcopal Church and the See of Canterbury.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}} The June 2008 church blessing of a civil relationship between Peter Cowell, an Anglican chaplain at the [[Royal London Hospital]] and priest at [[Westminster Abbey]], and David Lord, an Anglican priest serving at a parish in [[Waikato]], New Zealand, renewed the debate one month prior to the conference. [[Martin Dudley]], who officiated at the ceremony at [[St Bartholomew-the-Great]], maintained that the ceremony was a "blessing" rather than a matrimonial ceremony.<ref>{{cite news |last=Dudley |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Dudley |date=17 June 2008 |title=Why I blessed gay clergymen's relationship |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2008/06/gay-relationship-marriage-love |magazine=New Statesman |access-date=11 June 2017}}</ref>

[[File:Icon Cathedral 3.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Icon of the Melanesian Martyrs at Canterbury Cathedral|Icon of the Melanesian Martyrs at Canterbury Cathedral]]
In 2008, the seven martyred members of the [[Melanesian Brotherhood]] were honoured during the concluding Eucharist of the 2008 conference at [[Canterbury Cathedral]]. Their names were added to the book of contemporary martyrs and placed, along with an [[icon]], on the altar of the "Chapel of the Saints and Martyrs of Our Times". When the Eucharist was over, bishops and others came to pray in front of the small altar in the chapel.<ref>{{cite news |last=De Santis |first=Solange |date=3 August 2008 |title=Lambeth bishops attend closing Eucharist; Martyred Melanesian brothers honoured in Canterbury Cathedral |url=http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_99702_ENG_HTM.htm |work=Episcopal Life Online |agency=Episcopal News Service |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090907114423/http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_99702_ENG_HTM.htm |archive-date=7 September 2009 |access-date=3 December 2009}}</ref> The icon stands in the cathedral<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.canterburydiocese.org/thegathering/programme/friday4september09/index.htm |title=The Gathering |date=4 September 2009 |publisher=Canterbury Diocese |access-date=3 December 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090916055217/http://www.canterburydiocese.org/thegathering/programme/friday4september09/index.htm |archive-date=16 September 2009}}</ref> as a reminder of their witness to peace and of the multi-ethnic character of global Anglicanism.