The "alternative Lambeth" conference organised by conservative evangelicals in the Anglican church in Amman has been forced to up sticks and move to a different country after the Archbishop of Nigeria was denied entry to Jordan.

The Global Anglican Future Conference was to have met in Jordan this week and Jerusalem next week in a bid to establish an orthodox centre for the Anglican Communion, currently in disarray over the twin issues of homosexuality and women's ordination.

But the Global South leader Dr Peter Akinola, the primate of Nigeria and one of the leading lights of the conservative evangelical wing of the Communion, was denied entry to Jordan when attempting to cross the border from Israel.

So, putting into practice the proverb that if Mohammed won't go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed, the entire conference is this morning checking out of the hotel in Jordan and getting on a bus to Jerusalem, where they will meet up with Dr Akinola.

The history of the Lambeth Conference

Our historical guide traces the origins and issues that dominated the agenda at past Lambeth conferences

From the Times Archive, 1867

The first Lambeth Conference had its issues, but participants hoped future meetings would evoke the same fraternal spirit

• 1920 Conference: Birth Control

• 1958 Conference: Family Planning

• 1978 Conference: Ordination Of Women

Multimedia

• Full coverage of Lambeth Conference 2008

• Articles of faith: Ruth Gledhill's blog

• Video: Archbishop of Canterbury on Lambeth 2008

Related Links

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The 100 or so bishops who are at the small, behind-closed-doors pre-conference meeting in Amman were originally planning to go to the Holy Land on Sunday, for the launch of the main conference in a dramatic ceremony at the Mount of Olives on Monday morning.

The Jerusalem end will see more than 1,000 delgates, including 280 bishops with their wives and other clergy and laity.

According to sources at the conference, the Nigerian delegation landed in Tel Aviv and went to the northern crossing point. Archbishop Akinola was travelling on his diplomatic passport. After being questioned for four hours, he was turned back, although the rest of the Nigerian delegation was allowed in. He got his passport back, and was told that he needed a particular clearance on a diplomatic passport which he did not possess.

The other main Global South leader, Archbishop Gregory Venables, is also not in Jordan because his wife is in hospital after complications following a hip operation. He is hoping to join Gafcon in Jerusalem.

US evangelical blogger David Virtue, who is in Jordan, said the Gafcon leaders were thrown into "dismay" because of Dr Akinola's role as a key player in the conservative bid to reform the Anglican church from within.

The Archbishop of Sydney, the Right Rev Peter Jensen, who did make it to the conference, said: "The time in Jordan was very valuable for prayer, fellowship, and networking."