1 post tagged “lambeth preview”

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Lambeth Conference is the gathering of the bishops of the churches of the Anglican Communion at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Lambeth Conference is named after Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury where the first Lambeth Conference gathered in 1867 with 76 bishops present. With the exception of the years during World Wars I and II, the Lambeth Conference has gathered every ten years since. 

Archbishop Longley, the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1867, called for the bishops of the communion to gather for two main reasons: first, such a gathering was requested by Canadian bishops who expressed their desire for fellowship with bishops of other churches of the Communion; and, second, the Lambeth Conference was called in response to a controversy surrounding the issue of who was the legitimate bishop of a diocese in South Africa (i.e., The Colenso Affair). When Archbishop Longley issued the invitation, some English bishops were scandalized by the idea of such a gathering and refused to attend. Comparing life in the Anglican Communion today to the circumstances surrounding the first Lambeth Conference, it appears that not a great deal has changed. At a distance of 141 years since the first Lambeth Conference, we approach this summer’s Lambeth Conference with an enduring need for fellowship and conversation among bishops and facing controversy around the episcopate and competing visions of the church. It appears that some things in our life as a Communion have not changed since Archbishop Longley welcomed his guests to the first Lambeth Conference.

Traditionally, the Archbishop of Canterbury has invited all active bishops of the thirty eight member Churches of the Anglican Communion to attend the Lambeth Conference. However, for the upcoming Conference this summer, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has withheld invitations for at least two diocesan bishops (one from The Episcopal Church and one from the Church of Uganda) and for several persons who have been irregularly ordained bishop and whose status as bishops of the Communion is in significant doubt.

Let us be very clear: the Lambeth Conference is a conference and not a congress. It has neither legislative nor governing authority or jurisdiction in any of the thirty eight autonomous, self-governing churches which constitute the Anglican Communion. The member churches of the Communion are listed in the Constitution of the Anglican Consultative Council, which has been approved by all the member churches of the Communion. (The Anglican Consultative Council is one of the four Instruments of Unity, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference and the Primates Meeting. The Anglican Consultative Council is the only instrument of unity which includes lay and clerical representatives from the member churches.) Removal of a member church from the Communion would take the unanimous agreement of each governing body of each of the thirty seven other member churches.

Regarding what’s going to happen at the upcoming Lambeth Conference, my own intuition is that since there are to be no resolutions to be considered, there will probably be more news generated by what happens around the edges, outside the Lambeth Conference itself. (And, as an aside, I urge you not to rely on the commercial television network news or the secular press as your main source of information or interpretation about the Lambeth Conference. Instead, go to Episcopal News Service or Anglicans Online for more accurate news and more knowledgeable interpretation.

The structure of this Lambeth Conference is designed to be conversational and collegial. As I understand it, neither resolutions nor pronouncements will made by the Conference as a body. The 700 or so bishops who gather in Canterbury will meet daily in groups of eight for Bible study (St. John’s Gospel), prayer and conversation. On a less regular basis, we will meet in expanded groups of 40, and on a few occasions will gather as a plenary of 700 bishops in Canterbury Cathedral. While the bishops gather for daily conversation and prayer, a parallel conference for those spouses attending will also be taking place, its theme being “God’s People for God’s Mission.”

The Lambeth Conference will take place July 16-August 3 in Canterbury. Participants housed at the University of Kent, located about 1½ miles from the center of the Town of Canterbury and its Cathedral. The University is located on a ridge and one can stand outside and look down on the town and Canterbury Cathedral. It is truly an awesome and inspiring vista.

The focus of the Lambeth Conference will be around the themes of “The Bishop and the Nature of Episcopate” and “Equipping Bishops to be More Effective in their Ministry.” Other themes to be addressed are: The Bishop and the Environment; Engaging a Multi-Faith World – Christian Witness and Other Faiths; When Power is Abused – Gender Relationships; The Bible and the Bishop in Mission; Listening to God and Each Other – the Bishop and Human Sexuality; Fostering our Common Life – the Bishop, the Anglican Covenant and the Windsor Process.

I see this and every Lambeth Conference as part of a stream of prayerful gatherings of those charged with episcopal ministry. Every Lambeth Conference has been filled with energetic conversation, vigorous fellowship focused reflection and on occasion deep disagreement. In our traditional and time-honored Anglican way, it is in collegial fellowship and prayerful conversation that the Anglican Communion hammers out what constitutes faithful and effective Christian witness within the Catholic Tradition as the realities of the Gospel meet the difficulties of life in a broken and sin-sick world.

I approach this, my second Lambeth Conference, with confidence, thanksgiving and humility.

First, I go to the Lambeth Conference with confidence: Confidence in God and God’s purposes for the Anglican Communion and the mission God has entrusted to our hands; and confident the Anglican Communion’s part in building in the new society of justice, hope and reconciliation established by the resurrection of Jesus. I go with confidence in the healing and reconciling power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to restore broken relationships. And I go with great confidence in our messy Anglican way of being able to live without complete clarity about all things. I go with confidence in our Anglican ability to muddle through great disagreements while continuing to be of one heart as we gather around God’s Altar.

Second, I go to the Lambeth Conference with thanksgiving. I am thankful for the gift we are called to be to one another through the grace of baptism. I am thankful that our baptism brings us into solidarities with people vastly different, solidarities with those with whom we may disagree, and solidarities which span the deep rifts and divisions that life sometimes brings. I am thankful that the water of baptism is thicker than blood and that our baptism binds us together for eternity. That means we can neither cast one another out in an ultimate way nor escape the eternal relationship established with God and one another through the bond of Baptism.

Lastly, I go to the 2008 Lambeth Conference with a sense of humility. I remember from the 1998 Lambeth Conference that the food served us daily in the University Dining Hall was by the standards of the pampered palates of us from the United States and other first-world countries, simple and bland “institutional” food. I heard complaints about that food from some who were attending from wealthy churches and nations. But I also know that for many bishops and their spouses, the simple food of the dining hall represented a vast increase in the quantity, quality and dependability of their daily food intake from what might be available back home, and certainly the same was true for many – if not most – of the people they serve in Jesus’ name. 

At this Lambeth Conference, the gathered bishops will hear the stories of many brother and sister bishops and we will learn in poignant ways that their witness to the Gospel has called for risks and sacrifices that many of us in this church have not known and will never know. We will be convicted and humbled and made proud and given courage through hearing their stories with open hearts. And I pray that they will hear our stories from the Church in the United States as we tell of our own struggles for justice in Christ’s name, our missionary desire to include all people in the loving embrace of God and full inclusion for all in the ministry and life of the church within our own context.

In closing, I remember that at the 1998 Lambeth Conference, we talked about two things: sex and international debt. It appears that for all the publicity and controversy about sex over the intervening ten years, little has changed. But while we here in the United States haven’t heard much about international debt since the 1998 Lambeth Conference, I do believe that the witness and calls to action that Lambeth 1998 made about eradicating the burden of international debt which keeps so many of the world’s poor in virtual economic slavery to first world countries has made a critical difference in the lives of many of the world’s poor nations and peoples over the intervening years.

I go to the Lambeth Conference with confidence, thanksgiving and humility. I ask you to keep our Presiding Bishop, all the bishops of The Episcopal Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury and all bishops soon to gather in Canterbury in your prayers for our beloved Anglican Communion. Pray that through our time together we become more effective witnesses to the Gospel and greater heralds of the new society being built on the foundation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.