The Lambeth Conference begins today. Meeting every ten years, it brings together bishops from across the Anglican Communion for prayer and conversation, and occasionally to decide matters of doctrine and practice. There has already been a great deal of news about Lambeth–much of it having to do with who got invited and who didn’t, and about those boycotting.

Many of the primates from the Global South, most notably Nigeria and Uganda, announced they, and their bishops wouldn’t be attending. Others have boycotted less noisily. But it turns out that there is only one province (Uganda) with no bishops in attendance.

As always, Episcopal Cafe and Thinking Anglicans keep up with everything that’s going on. In addition, Episcopal Cafe has listed all of the blogging bishops here. Jim Naughton, one of the best Episcopal journalists is also present and blogging.

It will be interesting to follow the action, but I don’t expect a great deal to happen, especially legislatively. The Archbishop of Canterbury has made it quite clear that he wants to focus on bible study and reflection rather than on resolving the deep divisions. But we’re all likely to be surprised in the next couple of weeks.

Of course, the Archbishop of Canterbury has his hands full. The General Synod of the Church of England voted to ordain women bishops. It was a vote that sparked an uproar among conservatives, many of whom are threatening to leave the Church. There was a well-written profile of Archbishop Williams in the Guardian.