5 Anglican primates to boycott Lambeth

LONDON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Five Anglican primates from Africa and South America have announced that they will boycott the 2008 Lambeth Conference in Britain.

Archbishops Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda, Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, Henry Orombi of Uganda and Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone said they could not attend the gathering because bishops from the United States have been invited, Episcopal News Service reported. They object to the 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The Lambeth Conference, scheduled to begin in July, is held once a decade to bring the worldwide Anglican Communion together. The communion is a loose confederation of national churches and of some groups of countries, and has 38 primates or archbishops.

The five archbishops and others have planned a meeting a month before Lambeth, the Global Anglican Future Conference or GAFCON. The Bishop of Jerusalem, Suheil Dawi, does not support them and has said the conference will be "disastrous for his ministry in the Holy Land."