Fulcrum welcomes the Bishop of Croydon, Nick Baines, as a blogger on the Lambeth Conference. Nick has aready posted his first message, and we welcome comments on his blog on this thread.

Oh I see that all would be 'gracious' harmony and perfection for the 'bishops and their wives' but for that media-mongering Bishop Robinson.

That is such a shame !  And it was all going to such a lovely, gracious, two-faced party ....

Yes, they rebuffed him with this piece of complete hypocrisy:

Questioned as to their relationship to Dr Kunonga by ReligiousIntelligence.com, the Archbishops of Kenya and Uganda said that though Dr Kunonga had sought their support, they had told him to work within the structures of the Province of Central Africa.

“The Bishop of Harare came to see us about this request” for Harare to join the Church of Kenya , Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi said. But he was told “ Harare belongs to Central Africa .”

It was improper for one province to interfere in the internal deliberations of another, the Kenyan archbishop said. “When you face a challenge you don’t run and join another province.” We told Dr Kunonga “go back to the Dean of that province to solve that problem.”

Apologies to Obadiahslope and Mark that your postings were temporarily withdrawn today. You had inadvertently and innocently posted to Nick's blog rather than to this thread. I've now (I hope!) closed the loophole that allowed this, and moved your posts to this thread. Please do not be discouraged from continuing to comment on Nick's blog.

Dear Bishop Nick,  

  You may have enjoyed just as much fellowship at GAFCON,  and at the same time affirmed the historical orthodoxy of the Anglican Church.   A point worth considering?

Fidelis (interesting self-description),

The sharing of fellowship is hardly a contentious issue and hardly to be the subject of yet another hierarchy (after 'pain', 'victimhood', 'fidelity', etc.). I am beginning to regret having agreed to blog.

Bishop Nick - please don't regret it, and please don't stop - the natives are only restless because you lot are going into retreat for three/four? days and I somehow don't think that will be particularly news-worthy or contentious. But I hope it is everything you hope for and more besides - wherever we come from in all this we surely need the grace of God.

Thanks, Bishop Nick, for an amazing blog about yesterday, Sunday. You've covered the eucharist in the Cathedral, conversations in the crypt with African bishops, the process explanations for both the Covenant and the Windsor Continuation Group, and the Presidential Address - and much more. This is really helpful in getting the atmosphere and some accurate detail about the conference. It means that readers of the Fulcrum site do not have to rely on newspapers, radio and TV for insights.

Following the explanation of the indaba groups, which, it seems to me, may well prove to be a crucial gift from Africa to the conference, you raise a question:

I don't know the answer to this question, but I wonder if the GAFCon process allowed all voices to be heard properly. That is a question, not a statement.

I was not at GAFCON but from reports it seems clear that bishops from Pakistan and Sudan and from other muslim majority countries could only go to the Amman pre-GAFCON conference. This was because of the choice of Jerusalem as the location for the main conference. Their countries would never grant visas for a conference in Jerusalem. So, it seems that voices of bishops from muslim majority countries were not heard properly.

Then came the strange decision to abandon the Pakistani and Sudanese bishops in Amman as the pre-GAFCON conference was abrubtly halted, almost before it got started.  Peter Akinola was refused a visa for The Jordan at the border and so the choice was made to leave the Pakistani and Sudanese bishops and take most of the pre-GAFCON conference to Jerusalem to be with him. Bob Duncan stayed behind to be with the Pakistani and Sudanese bishops and did not go to GAFCON at all.

How interesting that both Bishops Nick and Mike have been impressed by the emerging testimony (why is this always so much better delivered personally?) of the African bishops. I believe it was the Sudanese Bishop about whom Bishop Mike wrote whom I collected from the airport a week ago. He and his fellow Bishops spent time in many of our churches in Salisbury diocese and made an enormous impact on the three congregations I know best. And in a very few minutes!

The wisdom, committment and humility they brought and communicated very successfully to us was remarkable. Few C of E bishops would have spoken so openly. Most importantly they got over to our congregations both their committment to unity within the comminion and their passionate teaching of biblical living. And yes, they were very open about dealing with sexual problems in their ministry to the polygamous in their own diocese.

Furthermore they had sent two bishops to observe at GAFCON as well, so spoke from a well informed position of knowledge. While we love our own bishops dearly, and helped to support our Sudanese friends in coming to Lambeth, they are almost worth more to us for the effect they have on us here in our parishes, than any uncertain outcome of Lambeth.