London ? Anglican conservatives angered by the liberal drift of the U.S. Episcopal Church are planning their own world meeting on the future of the global Anglican Communion.

The meeting, announced over the Christmas holiday, is set for June 15-22, a few weeks before the Lambeth Conference, a once-a-decade gathering of world Anglican leaders that has become a focus of tension within the fellowship of churches. Theological conservatives and liberals have separately threatened to boycott the Lambeth Conference because of who was and wasn’t invited.

Organizers of the conservative meeting insist their gathering is not an alternative to Lambeth. They say some Anglican archbishops will attend both events.

“While this conference is not a specific challenge to the Lambeth Conference, it will provide opportunities for fellowship and care for those who have decided not to attend Lambeth,” said Canon Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream, a conservative group.

The Anglican Communion is a 77-million-member family of churches that trace their roots to the Church of England. The Episcopal Church, the Anglican body in the United States, caused an uproar in 2003 by consecrating the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Anglicans are now on the brink of schism.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the communion’s spiritual leader, does not have the direct authority to force a compromise. However, he is excluding Robinson from the Lambeth assembly and refusing to invite Martyn Minns, a conservative U.S. priest who was consecrated as a bishop in the Anglican Church of Nigeria to minister to disaffected Episcopalians in the U.S.