Ruth Gledhill Religion Correspondent of The Times
7 November 2007

Times Online

The evangelical Archbishops who head the "Global South" grouping have called on the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to postpone next year's Lambeth Conference.

Several senior bishops, including the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, have already warned they could boycott the conference, the ten-yearly gathering of Anglican Communion bishops from across the globe, because of the row over gays.

Today nine Primates, including Nigeria's Peter Akinola, Uganda's Luke Orombi and South East Asia's John Chew, said the conference should be postponed until all bishops could meet "in a spirit of true collegiality and unity in the faith."

Their call came just days after the 490th anniversary of the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Cathedral in Wittenberg, prompting the Reformation. This week, organisers of the Lambeth Conference are meeting to agree the agenda and other matters regarding the July meeting at Kent University. Dr Williams has previously indicated that he has no intention of acceding to calls to postpone it.

In a letter to all the Church's Primates, Dr Akinola said: "The world needs to understand that the situation that we now confront is not primarily about structure or conferences but about irreconcilable truth claims. It is worth remembering that in the Biblical narratives religious structures have often been the enemy of revealed truth."

Meanwhile, Britain's lesbian and gay Christian community community have launched a protest against the appointment of evangelical leader Joel Edwards to be a protector of gay rights.

The appointment of Joel Edwards, head of the Evangelical Alliance, as commissioner to the new human rights and equality "superquango" was also condemned by secularists as a "slap in the face" to the gay community.

The National Secular Society called for an "urgent rethink” of the appointment of Mr Edwards as commissioner to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The Evangelical Alliance is among the Christian bodies that have opposed aspects of the Sexual Orientation Regulations. The legislation outlaws discrimination against gay people in the area of goods and services.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “This appointment must be reversed immediately.

“Mr Edwards comes to the job with a pre-formed agenda that is based on a literalist reading of the Bible. How on earth is he going to look objectively at gay issues when he has made a career out of opposing equality for homosexuals?”

The Rev Richard Kirker, of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said: “I was stunned when Joel told me personally he was to be a commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission.”

“Holding such a key role in the organisation charged with supporting gay equality will put him at loggerheads with many in his own fundamentalist constituency. I am delighted he now seems to have “seen the light” and can embrace and support all the recent pro-gay legislation without exception, and with a clear conscience. I can only hope his late conversion to equality is genuine, deep-rooted and sincere."