Conservative Anglican bishops call summit

Some 280 conservative Anglican bishops from Africa, Latin America and Asia will attend a breakaway summit next month in Jerusalem which has raised fears of a schism in the 400-year-old church over homosexual priests.

The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) said in a statement that it would group church leaders from 17 countries representing 35 million Anglicans, or nearly half its members.

It threatens to overshadow the Lambeth Conference, a 10-yearly conclave of over 800 bishops designed to shore-up church unity, which will take place six weeks later.

Churchmen from Australia, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda have already threatened to boycott the Lambeth summit.

Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, chairman of GAFCON's programme committee, said in the statement that the meeting will discuss the challenges facing the Anglican church, including secularism, other religions, poverty and HIV/AIDS, as well as moral and theological issues.

The Jerusalem summit will also "prepare for an Anglican future in which the Gospel is uncompromised and Christ-centred mission a top priority", said the statement released in Nigeria.

See Conservative Anglican bishops call summit
Reuters South Africa -