From here<\/a>:<\/p>\n SAME-SEX relationships, the topic that has riven the Anglican Communion for the past two decades, is not officially on the agenda of this week\u2019s meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n It is not a topic that can be ignored, however, not least because three provinces \u2014 Nigeria, Uganda, and Rwanda \u2014 have declined to be represented here because of the involvement of provinces with which they profoundly disagree.<\/p>\n At the opening press conference, on Saturday, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke again about his dilemma when issuing invitations to the Lambeth Conference next year. He has been under fire for not inviting the partners of bishops in same-sex marriages to join the rest of the spouses at next year\u2019s gathering (News, 22 February).<\/p>\n There are currently two bishops in this position: the Rt Revd Mary Glasspool, Assistant Bishop of New York, and the Rt Revd Kevin Robertson, Suffragan Bishop of Toronto. Next month, they are due to be joined by a third, when the Revd Thomas Brown is consecrated Bishop of Maine.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is worth noting that the controversy is not only one way,\u201d Archbishop Welby said. He had received \u201ca considerable number of letters as well\u201d about the fact that he had extended an invitation to bishops who were in same-sex partnerships: a change from 2008, when the Rt Revd Gene Robinson was barred from attending by the Archbishop\u2019s predecessor.<\/p>\n \u201cHow we deal with people of different views, from views that are passionately, deeply against any same-sex relations through to people who believe it is a matter of justice . . . and [that] it is injustice not to accept same-sex marriage . . . whichever you\u2019re dealing with, the first rule is: these are people.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most painful part, to me, of the decisions that have to be made, is that I know that, at every moment that I write a letter or make a decision, I am making a decision about people \u2014 and that there is no decision that will result in nobody getting hurt.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019d decided differently on the decision about same-sex spouses \u2014 and it hurt a lot of people, by the way \u2014 I would have hurt a huge number of people elsewhere in the Communion. And there wasn\u2019t a nice solution which I looked and thought, \u2018Nah, I don\u2019t want to do that, I\u2019ll take the nasty solution.\u2019 It\u2019s not as simple as that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Justin Welby sent out the Lambeth 2020 invitations and disinvited the spouses of bishops who are in same-sex marriages, he was attempting a compromise which was typically Anglican: it had nothing to do with right, wrong, truth or lies; … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/accpressconf-20190429013518875_web.jpg\")
The Archbishop of Canterbury (centre) with the secretary-general of the Anglican Communion, the Rt Revd Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, and the chairman of the ACC, the Archbishop of Hong Kong, the Most Revd Paul Kwong<\/p>\n