Australian Primate "urges rebels to rethink"

THE Anglican Primate of Australia, Phillip Aspinall, has called on rebel Anglicans, including the Sydney Archbishop, Peter Jensen, to reconsider their boycott of Lambeth, the decennial conference of national church leaders, saying reform must come from within.

Responding to the conservatives' threat to create a breakaway faction within the global church, Dr Aspinall said there was room for diversity within the church's boundaries.

His guarded comments came as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, challenged the autonomy and legitimacy of the breakaway faction, the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, announced by conservatives angered by liberal thinking over homosexual clergy and same-sex blessings.

But Dr Williams said a primates council comprised of a self-selected group would not "pass the test of legitimacy for all in the Communion". And any claim to be free to operate across provincial boundaries was fraught with difficulties, theological and practical. Read more
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