Church calendars filled with meetings in October

October will see an unusual number of gatherings – some called only recently – that will affect the Anglican Communion and the Anglican Church of Canada. The Journal offers an advance look at these important meetings: Oct. 7-9 – conservative Anglicans will gather in Dallas. The meeting was announced in August by the American Anglican Council at the Episcopal Church of the U.S. General Convention. The council objected to the convention’s approval of the election of Gene Robinson, a gay man, as a bishop and tacitly approved the concept of same-sex blessings (see Conservatives). Oct. 7-10 – The Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples will meet in Winnipeg for a “Leadership Conference” that will examine its relationships with church leaders and renew the 1994 convenant seeking a self-determining Anglican indigenous church (see ACIP). Oct. 15-16 – The primates of the 38 Anglican provinces worldwide will gather in London. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams called the special session after the Episcopal Church’s General Convention (see Primates). Oct. 24-26 – Organizers say the Halfway to Lambeth conference will gather gay and lesbian Anglicans with church leaders from around the world to discuss what role homosexuality will play at the next international Lambeth meeting of bishops in 2008 (see Gay-positive).