Last month, about 280 conservative bishops from Africa, Asia and North America met in Jerusalem and pledged to sideline Williams and the Episcopal Church by creating a powerful new council of archbishops and a new province in the United States. About 200 of the bishops, mainly from Africa, are boycotting Lambeth, saying they won't meet with their liberal colleagues.

But this year's Lambeth Conference has been designed to discourage resolutions that would discipline the United States and Canada. Small group discussions and a "mind of the communion" document at the conference's conclusion Aug. 3 will replace plenary sessions and parliamentary debate.

The Rev. John Peterson, former general secretary of the Anglican Communion, who helped plan the 1998 Lambeth Conference, said a conference without resolutions "has been the desire of every archbishop of Canterbury, ever."

But that desire has rarely been fulfilled, Peterson said.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Lambeth 2008

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