Peace be with you! And also with you!

Matthew 10:13 “And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.”

Insight: This day that we’re living in, it’s such a day of unsettled peace and unsettled rest everywhere. People are running to-and-fro seeking whatever they may seek. Most anybody can get a following. No matter what they teach or think, somebody will listen to them. And it’s a day that the prophets spoke of. People, when they’re hungry, they’ll eat from anywhere. If children and people are starving, they’ll eat from a garbage can, that once eat from a nice table. But if they are hungry, they’ll eat somewhere. So I think real true ministers of the Gospel ought to be up and going, ought to be giving the people the right things: meat in due season and the true teachings about the Word of God.

Sydney bishops to boycott Anglican meet over gays
 
Bishops in Australia’s largest city Sydney are pulling out of the Anglican Church’s top global meeting this year in a dispute over gay bishops and same-sex marriages, their archbishop said. The boycott is being spearheaded by Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen, who is a leading conservative voice in the acrimonious row over the ordination of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson in the United States.

Announcing the move after an ordination service here on Saturday, Jensen said another five bishops would also not attend the Lambeth Conference, which runs from July 20 to August 3 in Canterbury, England. “With regret, the archbishop and bishops of the Diocese of Sydney have decided not to attend the Lambeth Conference in July,” he said in a statement.

“They remain fully committed to the Anglican Communion, to which they continue to belong, but sense that attending the conference at this time will not help heal its divisions.” Jensen is one of a number of conservative church leaders around the world who are expected to boycott the meeting.

A number of African bishops led by Bishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria are also expected not to attend. The US Episcopal church in 2003 consecrated Robinson as a bishop, outraging conservative colleagues in the Anglican church around the world.

Conservative Anglicans, mainly from Asia and Africa, have been threatening for some time to boycott the conference over Robinson’s appointment, and the move by the Sydney bishops has been expected.

The Lambeth Conference is held every 10 years and is the highest meeting of the world Anglican communion, bringing together more than 800 bishops from all over the world. Robinson himself has not been invited, but the US bishops who consecrated him have been asked to come.

The Diocese of Sydney is seen as conservative in the Australian branch of the Anglican church. Jensen has spoken out in the past against the ordination of women bishops, which was approved in principle by the Australian Anglican church last year for some dioceses.

Jensen and Akinola of Nigeria are expected to attend an Anglican conference in Jerusalem in June, but some have criticised it as a rival event to Lambeth and likely only to widen divisions.