Archbishop Jensen and Sydney's five assistant bishops will delay their reply to the Lambeth 2008 invitation until after the American bishops clarify whether they will comply with the Windsor report.
The original RSVP date set by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was July 31.
In a letter sent to Archbishop Williams, the Sydney Bishops say the invitation ‘has been received with pleasure and it would give us a great deal of joy to be able to join you’ but "the timing of the invitation has proved difficult'.
Since March, Global South Anglican leaders have been urging US Episcopal bishops to reconsider their response to the Primates' Dar Es Salaam Communiqué.
The Communiqué requests the US Church recommit to the Windsor Report, and calls for their “heartfelt repentance and genuine change” in order to restore true communion. A final response from the American bishops is not expected until late September.
The Sydney bishops' letter also reveals that the delay is aimed at communicating to Archbishop Williams their hesitations, "in joining with those who have consecrated Bishop Gene Robinson, and with others who have allowed the blessing of same-sex unions".
"Given the significance of these events," the Sydney bishops say, "we feel we cannot give an answer to your kind invitation until later in the year."
Kirker claims "racist'
Meanwhile, Dr Jensen's media officer Margaret Rodgers has dismissed as "shameful' and "racist' claims by an English gay leader that the Primate of Nigeria will appoint a flying bishop for UK conservatives as part of a plan directed by the Archbishop of Sydney.
The Rev Richard Kirker from the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement has written, "It has been clear for some time that under the guidance of Peter Jensen (Archbishop of Sydney)" that the Nigerian Church "has been distancing itself from the Church of England and particularly the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury".
Margaret Rodgers said Kirker's comments are a slight against Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola whose leadership was ‘greatly admired in the Diocese of Sydney’.
"This statement is patently untrue and it has no basis in fact," she says.
"It is deeply shameful for it has at its base an inherent racism that fails to acknowledge the biblical commitment and insights of this particular African Primate. No one guides and advises Archbishop Akinola what to do except the Lord of the Bible.
"Kirker's statement appears to be akin to the "chicken dinner' slurs that were used by some liberal churchmen in their attempt to offset the biblical understandings of African bishops at the time of the 1998 Lambeth Conference," she says.
After the sexuality resolution vote in 1998, Bishop Barbara Harris suggested that the African bishops had been bought for the price of a chicken dinner, referring to their attendance at two dinners hosted by American Evangelical Episcopal bishops.
A Nigerian bishop responded to this attack by saying that he and his fellow bishops could not be bought by anything, except the cross of Christ.
