Lambeth 1998: Tensions and hopes

I. Introduction

On September 29, 1994, the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to all bishops of the Anglican Communion and United Churches of South Asia inviting them to the 1998 Lambeth Conference. The Archbishop, reminded the bishops that in the world today "the Church of Jesus Christ is facing untold odds . . . [that] in many parts of the world our brothers and sisters suffer the effects of famine, war and natural disasters." He also reminded the bishops "that whatever extremities we face, God is always there." Archbishop Carey concluded his letter by saying, "Certainly there is no preparation more important than our own prayer for the Holy Spirit to guide us into a deeper understanding of our vocation and responsibility. His resources are more than a match for our needs but we need one another to be effective instruments of his grace."

Four years later, by the end of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, it was clear that what the 750 bishops of the Anglican Communion could claim as their most important accomplishment was not what they had done, but how they had done it. Anglican unity proved to be the strength of the Conference, even in the midst of disagreement. The bishops had gathered "in the name of the One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit," and through daily worship and Bible studies and by meeting each other face to face were able to achieve the aims and objectives of this Lambeth Conference:

-To "maintain and strengthen the theological, spiritual and personal bonds" of the Communion;

-to "stimulate, encourage and renew the bishops in their episcopal ministry of guarding and interpreting the faith and leading the mission of the Church"; and

-to "clarify the mind of the bishops on certain designated issues which will be significant for the Church's fulfillment of its mission" as it enters the 21st century.

Although there were stringent debates at Lambeth 1998-focusing mainly on world debt, the persecuted church, sexuality and interfaith issues, especially with Islam-the result of the Conference could be seen mainly in the personal, daily encounters the bishops had with each other. Archbishop Carey, in his pastoral letter to the Anglican Communion following the Conference, wrote that "we have been transformed by being together... We have seen one another's faces.... And many of us will never be the same again because we have been enriched by the stories those people have shared with us, of leadership under pressure, and of the goodness of God, sometimes in the context of hardship, poverty and persecution, or elsewhere, of secularity and indifference."

In the seeing of one another's faces, the most critical concern of Lambeth 1998, that of maintaining and strengthening "the theological, spiritual and personal bonds" of the Communion, was met. The central concern that faces the Communion with every contentious issue it encounters is how to stay in communion with one another-how to love one another as Christ loves us-in the midst of disagreement and conflict. Issues that strike personally-issues such as lay presidency at the Holy Eucharist, the sacramental blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of sexually active homosexuals-continue to test the truth of Anglican unity as a Communion, especially in these debates when the unity of the Church is threatened by suggested changes that some dioceses or Provinces believe must be made for the sake of the mission of the Church. At a time when independence is more valued than interdependence, when the independent decisions of individual dioceses and Provinces threaten the unity of the Anglican Communion, the bishops at Lambeth 1998 demonstrated that by working together, the Communion not only could hold together, but be strengthened by its unity.

II. Unity-Communion: Conference Preparation and Section Reports

This article describes how the Lambeth Conference 1998, in the process of preparation and agenda-building, as well as the report of the Conference, came to acknowledge and give expression to an understanding of koinonia as central to the Christian faith, understood in terms of unity, interdependence and mutual accountability. This was most clearly expressed in the reception by the bishops of the Anglican Communion of the Virginia Report, the final monitoring report of the Eames Commission, and the enhanced role given to the Primates' Meeting.

Much of the success of the Lambeth Conference was the result of the work done prior to the Conference. Shortly after sending out his letter of invitation, the Archbishop appointed a Design Group to begin preparing the agenda; within 18 months, after consulting with the Primates of the Communion, the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council, and inter-Anglican bodies and networks, the Design Group had presented to the Archbishop four themes for the 1998 Conference: Called to Full Humanity; Called to Live and to Proclaim the Good News; Called to Be a Faithful Church in a Plural World; and Called to Be One. These themes became the framework around which an agenda, gathered from the Provinces and Regions of the Communion, was prepared and sent, along with study papers, to bishops in October 1997.