The Archbishop of Canterbury has commented publicly for the first time about the decision not to invite same-spouses to the 2020 Lambeth Conference.
Ninety percent of the Anglican Communion’s leaders “are conservative on issues of sexuality,” Abp. Welby told The Times. “I’ve invited all the bishops, including those in same-sex marriages. And I had to consider … getting as many people as possible there and excluding as few as possible. It’s a lose-lose situation.”
He added: “I had to take what is a really difficult and painful decision to say, in order for the conference to be as representative as possible and get all the bishops there and not have the risk of some provinces not coming because they felt I was pushing the envelope too far, that I couldn’t ask all the spouses.”
He added that he wanted the communion to “get to the point where we are able disagree well, and that’s while affirming the doctrine of marriage in its traditional Christian form.”
John Martin
John Kingsley Martin is a journalist based in London.
