bible study group

The head of the Anglican Communion said Sunday that the global fellowship faces ''one of the most severe challenges'' in its history, and he urged bishops at their once-a-decade Lambeth Conference to do the hard work of finding solutions. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said the Anglican family's most immediate need is for ''transformed relationships'' so they don't break apart over homosexuality and the Bible. ''We all know that we stand in the middle of one of the most severe challenges to have faced the Anglican family in its history,'' he said in an address to the 650 bishops at the assembly.

The Lambeth Conference, a once-a-decade summit of the world's Anglican bishops starting this week, will be a tense, closely watched family reunion. Nearly one quarter of the bishops -- theological conservatives mostly from Africa -- are boycotting the event. The 650 or so bishops who are participating are a mix of traditionalists and liberals with widely divergent ideas on how to save the splintering Anglican Communion.

The spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans said he feels ''great grief'' that more than 200 bishops are boycotting the Lambeth Conference, calling it a wound to the once-a-decade meeting of the Anglican fellowship. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams expressed respect for the decision of church leaders who stayed away, but he said their absence should not stop participants from trying to repair fractured relations, according to a paper released Thursday containing highlights of his private talk the previous day.

A task force drafting a statement on sexuality for the nation's largest Lutheran group said Thursday that the church should continue defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. However, the panel did not condemn same-gender relationships. The committee expressed regret that historic Lutheran teachings have been used to hurt gays and lesbians, and acknowledged that some congregations already accept same-sex couples.