Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, has rebutted inferences that the decision last month not to invite certain bishops to the Lambeth Conference 2008 came about by a precedent he created in 2000.

|PIC1|According to the Church of England newspaper, Lord Carey denied suggestions by the Rev Canon Kenneth Kearon, Secretary of the 2008 Conference, that the decision not to invite the AMiA and CANA bishops who have broken away from the Episcopal Church in America was linked to his stance in the year 2000

In his rebuttal, the former head of the Church of England points to that fact that in 2000 the practising homosexual bishop Gene Robinson had not been consecrated - an event which is now recognised as changing the face of Anglicanism forever.

Lord Carey wrote in the Church of England newspaper: "It is not too much to say that everything has changed in the Anglican Communion as a result of the consecration of Gene Robinson.

"The circumstances facing each Archbishop of Canterbury will vary according to the needs of the hour. For these reasons, I believe, that Dr Rowan Williams should not regard the advice he has evidently received that this matter is 'fixed' as necessarily binding on him in the very different circumstances of 2007."

He added that Dr Williams and all his colleagues remained in his thoughts and prayers.

The comments follow another torrid month for the worldwide Anglican Communion, where the Church's Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, warned that he may lead a boycott of the Lambeth Conference 2008, following the news that two bishops did not receive invitations from Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Dr Akinola revealed he was greatly upset that Archbishop Dr Rowan Williams did not issue an invitation to Bishop Martyn Minns, missionary bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), an orthodox Anglican splinter group and offshoot of the Church of Nigeria. He now oversees some 34 orthodox Anglican congregations in CANA that are dissident from the US Episcopal Church.

The first set of invitations for Lambeth 2008 - the Anglican Communion's global decennial gathering - were sent out by Archbishop Williams to more than 850 bishops last month.

The Rt Rev Martyn Minns said: "While the immediate attention is focused on the invitation list, it should be remembered that this crisis in the Anglican Communion is not about a few individual bishops but about a worldwide Communion that is torn at its deepest level."

Openly gay Bishop V Gene Robinson of New Hampshire was also not invited to Lambeth 2008.

While reports indicate the non-invitation of the two bishops is likely to provoke debate, Dr Williams stated he has to reserve the right to withhold invitations from "bishops whose appointment, actions or manner of life have caused exceptionally serious division or scandal within the Communion."

He also recalled that invitations are issued on a personal basis by the Archbishop of Canterbury and in the invitation letter stated that the conference has "no 'constitution' or formal powers".

The invitations went out four months before the US Episcopal Church is scheduled to respond to the requests of the Primates (Anglican leaders) to make an unequivocal pledge not to authorise same-sex blessings and confirm another openly gay bishop.

Adding more pressure to Dr Williams, the Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Rev Henry Luke Orombi, recently announced he would be rallying for a boycott of the Conference, because he said American bishops who backed gay Bishop, Gene Robinson's ordination - described as 'violators of the Lambeth Resolution' - have been invited.

Rod Thomas, of the conservative evangelical group Reform, has expressed his belief that the invitations should have gone out after the American Episcopal Church had responded to the conditions of the Primates meeting in February.