Bishop Brain will attend the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem from June 22-29 and the Lambeth Conference from July 16 to August 4 at the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus.

Attendance at the Lambeth Conference, held every 10 years, is by invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Included among the 880 bishops invited are those who were consecrators of practising homosexual bishops in the United States five years ago.

This has led to about 250 bishops boycotting the Lambeth Conference in protest over the ideological split within the church over gay bishops and same-sex marriages.

Bishops not attending include all those from Nigeria and Uganda, and many from Kenya, Tanzania and Asia.

All of Sydney’s bishops have also joined the boycott.

Bishop Brain said GAFCON is a one-off conference called in response to the American bishops being invited to the Lambeth Conference.

“The fact that those bishops consecrated practising homosexuals contrary to the Lambeth resolution of 1998 on sexuality has caused many of the world’s bishops to boycott Lambeth,” he said.

Bishop Brain - the only Australian Bishop going to both conferences - said, however, that he was going to Lambeth ‘because I feel I want to have a say’.

“Certainly, my sympathies are with the GAFCON bishops, my theological loyalties all lie in that direction,” he said.

“The GAFCON bishops all agree on a biblical authority, on all matters, not just sexuality.

“There will be many bishops who go to Lambeth who do not agree with the stance of the Episcopal Church in America.

“So I want to stand with those people and I want to try to argue the biblical view on homosexuality.

“I’m going to Lambeth to represent an orthodox viewpoint.”

Bishop Brain said there was a feeling that ‘the divide between people with liberal view of theology and those with a conservative view, while around for 100 years, has become obvious in this particular issue’.