Bishop Kevin Robertson is married to another man; Justin Welby invited Robertson to Lambeth 2020 but not his spouse.

There’s an old story about a vicar who wanted to move a piano from one side of the church to the other. He knew that his congregation didn’t like change so, rather than move the piano all at once, he moved it two inches per week. No one noticed until it was too late and the piano had arrived at its final destination a year later.

What is clear from the article below is that Justin Welby is using the old piano tactic.

Welby told Robertson he was “willing to move beyond what happened in 2008 when Gene Robinson was not invited. He was willing to invite me and Mary, but that it was too much of a step to invite our spouses as well.” Rest assured, if there is a Lambeth 2030, same-sex spouses will be invited.

Bishop Robertson finds the disinvitation offensive but not so offensive that he will stay away. Robertson is certainly right about one thing: this whole fiasco is riddled with hypocrisy. Justin Welby, reconciler extraordinaire, by striving mightily to outdo the best self-parodying efforts of Rowan Williams the Druid has made Western Anglicanism a laughing stock – for those who can still be bothered to notice its ever-diminishing existence.

From here:

Diocese of Toronto Bishop Suffragan Kevin Robertson married Mohan Sharma on Dec. 28, 2018. The diocese congratulated him on his marriage, which was attended by Toronto Archbishop Colin Johnson and Toronto Bishop Diocesan Andrew Asbil.

Robertson said in a telephone interview with ENS Feb. 18 that Welby told him in person that Sharma would not be invited. Robertson was at Lambeth Palace, Welby’s official London residence, on Feb. 7 as part of an annual 10-day new-bishop orientation run by Canterbury Cathedral when he was summoned to Welby’s office. The conversation occurred two days before Brown’s election in Maine.

“He said to me there are only two of you in the communion in this situation, you and Mary, and he said if I invite your spouses to the Lambeth Conference, there won’t be a Lambeth Conference,” Robertson said.

Welby, Robertson said, seemed to be “willing to move beyond what happened in 2008 when Gene Robinson was not invited. He was willing to invite me and Mary, but that it was too much of a step to invite our spouses as well.”

Their conversation came on the same day that Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, the primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria and the chairman of the Global Anglican Future Conference, or GAFCON, issued a “warning” saying that he expected that Robertson “and his partner will be attending [Lambeth] and received in good standing.”

Okoh said, “With great sadness we therefore have to conclude that the Lambeth Conference of 2020 will itself be an obstacle to the gospel by embracing teaching and a pattern of life which are profoundly at odds with the biblical witness and the apostolic Christianity through the ages.”

Robertson said the refusal to invite his and Glasspool’s spouses is “hurtful.” He said he and Sharma, who have two children, have been together for 10 years.

“I actually find it quite offensive. I know that’s a strong word, but I’m aware the Anglican Communion is not of one mind around marriage,” he said. “However, the decision to invite all the other spouses without inviting ours, I think, sends a very clear message about the way that same-sex relationships are regarded in the communion. I think that’s a troubling sign.”

Robertson said his first instinct was not to go with Lambeth without his spouse. While he has not made a final decision, he said that, at the moment, he thinks it’s important for all of the bishops who will find themselves in this position to go so that their voices are at the table.

During his time with the 29 bishops who were part the orientation in Canterbury, Robertson said some of them discussed Okoh’s letter. While they all did not agree, those conversations “reminded me that it’s so important to be in conversation; it’s so important to being in the process of building relationships, that that is only way we are going to get through this,” Robertson said.

“Frankly, it’s why I am so disappointed about the spouses not being invited. If we’re going to get through this, it will be because people come to know bishops in same-sex relationships and realize that we’re people too. It’s not by keeping people away. I think that’s the worst thing to do.”

The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada is scheduled to vote in July 2019 on changing its marriage canon to allow same-sex marriage.