The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia will be writing blog entries from England during the Lambeth Conference of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which started yesterday.

The Rt. Rev. F. Neff Powell, who has been bishop of the diocese for 11 years, is one of eight bishops from the U.S.-based Episcopal Church who plan to contribute to the blog.

The conference is a gathering of bishops from the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion that occurs once every 10 years. This year's conference continues through Aug. 3 at the University of Kent.

In recent years, tensions have flared among Anglican leaders over homosexuality and other theological issues, reaching a boiling point when an openly gay man was consecrated bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. A group of Virginia congregations have left the Episcopal Church to align with more conservative Anglican leaders in Africa.

The New Hampshire bishop, the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, has not been invited to the Lambeth Conference, but about 200 conservative Anglican bishops are boycotting it.

Asked about how the rift in the Anglican Communion might play out at Lambeth, Powell wrote in an e-mail, "As long as we stick to the general script to focus on talk and study and talk and reflection and talk and worship, it will go fine. The stresses and strains need time to be talked out. . . . It will not be helpful if we bring premature closure to talk on biblical interpretation or sexuality or the covenant."

The Rt. Revs. Peter James Lee, Shannon Sherwood Johnston and David Colin Jones of the Richmond-based Episcopal Diocese of Virginia are also in England for the conference.

The bishops "will spend three weeks in study, prayer and conversation with their brother and sister Anglican bishops from around the world," said Henry D.W. Burt, secretary of the Diocese of Virginia. "The hope we have is that Lambeth will allow all to celebrate common ground, discern the calling Anglican churches share around the world, and provide a setting where bishops can listen to God and each other in a renewed and healing way."
Staff writers Juan Antonio Lizama and Tina Eshleman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.