Differences between the church and Democratic candidates have affected the dinner in the recent past, particularly when the archdiocese withheld invitations to John Kerry and Bill Clinton because of concern over their support for abortion rights.
Archbishop Williams, seeking to avoid open confrontation between liberals and traditionalists at Lambeth, withheld an invitation from Bishop Robinson.
Ali Kerimli, leader of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, noted that when Mr. Aliyev was elected in 2003 in a vote deemed neither free nor fair, the White House withheld an invitation, awaiting improvement by Azerbaijan in promoting civil society and recognizing human rights.
One possible outcome is that the Archbishop of Canterbury will effectively cast the Episcopal Church loose by withholding an invitation to the Lambeth Conference.
But this year, even though the archdiocese is suing the Obama administration over a contraception coverage mandate that applies to some employees of Catholic institutions, there was no discussion of withholding an invitation to the president, Mr. Smith said.
His roommate had something going on every night, possibly something more vibrant and exclusive than the pale thing he generally had going on, and he felt it was better to withhold the invitation than risk suffering the indignity of rejection, even if that rejection was due to a simple conflict of interest — preëxisting plans, for example.
John Howard, Australia's prime minister, who had at last won a long-withheld invitation to the event, put noses out of joint by refusing to sign ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Co-operation, an inoffensive non-aggression pact.
Consent to participate was required from all patients, and some patients declined the invitation or withheld consent.
Akinola and others called on Rowan Williams to withhold a Lambeth invitation from the American church "unless they truly repent".
The Carter administration had little use for Nixon and blocked his planned trip to Australia, causing the government of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser to withhold its official invitation.
But these actions were not as troubling as the jobs withheld from Tyrone, the dinner invitations that never came and the unspoken assumptions about race that are so insidious that even I could fall prey to them.
