c. 1998 Religion News Service

YORK, England _ Anglican bishops opposed to the ordination of women will not mount a major boycott of worship services during the three-week Lambeth Conference, which opens July 18, predicts Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey.

Reports in both the United States and England have quoted traditionalists as saying up to 50 bishops who oppose the ordination of women to the priesthood might boycott worship services in which women bishops take part.

Of the 800 bishops who will gather for the 13th Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade meeting of all the bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion, 11 are women _ eight from the United States, two from Canada, and one from New Zealand. The Episcopal Church is the Anglican denomination in the United States.

The first woman bishop was appointed shortly after the 1988 Lambeth Conference, shocking traditionalists who thought they had won agreement from their colleagues to go slow on the issue of women as bishops even though women had been admitted to the priesthood since the 1970s. Indeed, a major focus of that meeting was how to maintain communion between churches with women priests and and those without.”Because some traditional bishops would find it very difficult in a conference where there is a tiny minority of women bishops, we said, `Let’s give you facilities on the campus where from time to time you can gather,'”Carey told reporters earlier this week during the general synod meeting of the Church of England.”But I have been assured by them (traditionalists) that they will be present at the major festivals, indeed at most of the services. So I think it will only be in extreme circumstances that they will not be with us.” Carey emphasized the Lambeth Conference is not a legislative gathering to decide doctrines and truths for the Anglican Communion in the way the Second Vatican Council was for Roman Catholicism.”It isn’t empowered to do that,”he said.

Although the conference cannot tell the bishops of any of the 37 autonomous churches that make up the Anglican Communion what to do, the coming together of the bishops, Carey said, could lead to the discovery of God’s will for them.”What is very clear is that in the gathering together of a conference like this we do find a common mind and a common identity,”he said.

Carey also dismissed the notion that Anglicans are more divided now than in the past.”It is not the case that we are more confused and more divided now than we were before 1968,”he said, adding that from the first conference in 1867, the church has always had”huge issues”to contend with.”To our great surprise we find ways of resolving the issue,”he said. As far as Lambeth 1998 is concerned,”all the forecasters of doom may well be pleasantly surprised,”he added.

Among the”huge issues”facing the 1998 meeting are sharp internal divisions over women and gays, which Carey and others hope to mute during the three-week session, and the growing gap between rich and poor throughout the world, especially the issue of Third World debt.

Carey noted that none of the nine preparatory regional meetings of Anglican bishops had listed sexuality as a priority, though it was an important subject, especially for bishops in the West.”As you know, I take a traditional stance on this, and probably the great majority of bishops adopt a similar approach,”he said.”I am quite clear that, whatever view bishops incline to, we must listen carefully to one another, knowing that this contentious issue will not be resolved by anger and bitterness but in the context of prayer and fellowship at the conference. I am convinced we will make progress.” More important, he said, is the”moral scandal”of international debt _ the only question to be listed as a priority by all nine regional meetings.”I am very confident that the conference will formulate a firm but constructive resolution addressed not only to the G8 (industrial) nations but to all governments and to the churches as well,”he said.

DEA END NOWELL