The Archbishop of Canturbury will not be attending the General Convention.

Archbishop Williams Won't Attend General Convention
5/2/2006

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, has declined an invitation to attend the 75th General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, next month, citing pre-existing obligations.

The Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, and the Archbishop of Canterbury “did talk about this some time ago and it is not possible on the Archbishop's mid-June calendar,” an aide to Bishop Griswold told The Living Church.

Sources at Lambeth Palace note the absence of the Archbishop of Canterbury is not intended as a snub to the Episcopal Church, but arises from the scheduling of a “series of consultations” designed to keep the Anglican Communion from falling into “schism.”

On April 24 Archbishop Williams met with the Archbishop of York and the bishops of Bristol, Durham, Exeter, Manchester, Norwich and Winchester, along with leadership from the Church Mission Society, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Anglican Consultative Council, and Anglican Mainstream at Lambeth Palace to discuss the Church of England’s options given different potential outcomes of the June 13-21 General Convention.

During the previous week, Archbishop Williams met with the Presiding Bishop at Lambeth Palace to discuss the situation within the Episcopal Church. After the meeting, Bishop Griswold told the Guardian it was important to keep channels of communication open with the leader of the Anglican Communion.

“We both live under stresses and strains, and it is important not to have second-hand communication, to meet face-to-face," Bishop Griswold said. "It enables me to hear his concerns and he can hear some from me.”

Archbishop Williams’ absence from Columbus will be the first time the Archbishop of Canterbury has not visited General Convention during a Presiding Bishop’s tenure since the 1950s. In 1997, Archbishop George Carey attended the 72nd General Convention in Philadelphia at which Bishop Griswold was elected Presiding Bishop while Archbishop Robert Runcie was the guest of the 1985 General Convention in Anaheim, Calif., where Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning was elected.

(The Rev.) George Conger

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From http://www.livingchurch.org/publishertlc/printarticle.asp?ID=1957