In the subsequent speech, the Archbishop of Canterbury called the current dispute “one of the most severe challenges to face the Anglican family.”

But Dr Williams said: “We need to get beyond the reciprocal impatience that shows itself in the ways in which both liberals and traditionalists are ready ”“ almost eager at times, it appears ”“ to assume the other is not actually listening to Jesus.”

The message came as a senior Archbishop confirmed that doubt felt by bishops about the state of the Communion had been removed by a series of “revelatory” closed-door sermons delivered by Dr Williams last week. Bishops “warmed enormously” to Dr Williams’s message of unity, said the Archbishop of Brisbane and Primate of the Anglican Province of Australia, Phillip Aspinall.

Against the odds, Dr Williams has created a strong sense of unity among the bishops at the University of Kent. Walking a tightrope between liberals and conservatives over sexuality and gender, Dr Williams has focused bishops’ minds on the higher meaning of their mission. Archbishop Aspinall said Dr Williams “put it to us that we must go into this conference confident that a way has been found to the Father through the Cross”.

Read it all.

[color=red][b]Updated: July 21, 12:30 UTC (8:30 a.m. EDT)[/b][/color] **This is sticky — New posts are below**

The amount of Lambeth coverage and commentary is pretty overwhelming. Here are some of the links we have found most helpful so far in following and making sense of what’s going on. We’re emphasizing first-hand coverage in these links. Feel free to post additional links in the comments.

The “Lambeth Daily” page at the official Lambeth site
An index of all the daily stories and photos, etc. by ACNS is here
The Episcopal Church’s “Lambeth Journal” blog (daily reports from various TEC bishops)

Anglican Mainstream — providing firsthand coverage by Canon Chris Sugden and others, as well as excerpts of many others’ commentary

The Rev. George Conger’s blog (George writes for the Living Church, the Church of England News, Religious Intelligence, and other publications). Note especially some of George’s fantastic photos of bishops from around the Communion.

The Living Church’s News page

The Rev. Todd and Cherie Wetzel of Anglicans United. Todd & Cherie are providing daily first-hand reports and commentary.

StandFirm will be sending the Rev. Matt Kennedy and Sarah Hey to cover the conference, and of course they’ve got tons of articles and commentaries about Lambeth in the meantime.

The PrayerBook Society’s Lambeth Commentary

Ruth Gledhill’s blog (Ruth is covering Lambeth for the London Times)

The Church Times blog

BabyBlue (who will be reporting live from Lambeth during the final week of the conference)

Lydia Evan’s very cool “Anglican Feedbag” page with many many RSS feeds of Lambeth news from sources all over.

Prayer for Lambeth:
Pray Lambeth (look for the links to the Daily Prayer Bulletins on the lower left hand side of the home page)
Lent & Beyond’s Lambeth prayers

Coverage from Reappraisers:
Thinking Anglicans (provides thorough roundups of the British Press Coverage)
Episcopal Cafe (Lambeth Category) (Jim Naughton is at Lambeth)
Integrity President Susan Russell’s blog
Integrity’s LGBT Lambeth Portal

Keith Ackerman, bishop of Quincy, Illinois, came because, as he put it: “An empty chair can’t speak”: he thought it important that the conservative view was represented.

He voiced the unease of many traditionalists when he accused liberals, in effect, of trying to rewrite the Bible.

“Why is it that people are determined to change the faith delivered to the saints?”

The conservatives feel the ground shifting beneath them and they find it deeply unsettling.

“The faithful of yesterday have become the dissidents of today,” in the words of Archbishop Greg Venables.

He was one of the 200 Anglican bishops and primates who met in Jerusalem a few weeks ago and founded what is, in effect, a breakaway organisation – the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans.

Though he came to Canterbury and participated in the service, he was one of several bishops who did not take communion, arguing that he is no longer in communion with many of his colleagues.

Read it all.

The liberal tone of the sermon, and its insistence on inclusivity and equality, upset some in the pews as did the more multicultural, politically correct aspects of the service.

The Right Rev Bob Duncan, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, could be deposed because he is unhappy with the progressive agenda pursued by the US Episcopal Church. He told the Guardian: “You cannot have unity at any price. The obvious divisions are there. When a family is broken it’s because the family has no boundaries. To have a Buddhist chant at an Anglican sermon does not reflect the God we believe in.”

Despite some dissent, most delegates remained upbeat. The presiding bishop of the US Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts-Schori, said it was a “wonderful” sermon.

“It’s what the church is today,” she said. “It is inclusive – even those who don’t agree with the message, it includes them too.”

Read it all.

On the opening night Williams said the 14th Lambeth Conference would not settle the disputes dividing the Anglican Communion, but an effort must be made to keep the conversation going to preserve the integrity of the church.

He hoped the conference would eschew a political solution to the theological divisions within the church and focus on “building relationships.” While this would not settle the disputes of doctrine and discipline “it is certain that without the building of relationships the challenges will never be resolved,” Williams said, according to bishops present at the opening session.

“I don’t have great expectations” for Lambeth, Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh said. It was important to give voice to the views of evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics marginalized by the dominant liberal wing of the Episcopal Church, and he welcomed the opportunity for “strengthening the bonds of relationship” with bishops from the developing world. However, he was “deeply saddened” that the gap between left and right now seemed unbridgeable.

The pleas for dialogue at this stage rang false, Bishop Venables said. “Although much has been said about talking, it seems to me that on one is listening,” he said. “I’m on the telephone,” but “no one has called me to say ”˜let’s talk’ this over,” Bishop Venables said.

Read it all.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Conference has officially begun…with an absolutely spectacular service in the packed Canterbury Cathedral. No greeting from the government this time. (Ten years ago Prince Charles was with us.)

Former Archbishop George and Eileen Carey were in the front row in the Nave.

Canterbury Cathedral is a rather strange building: very long and (proportionally) narrow. It is divided almost in half by a rood screen that is very solid, with a doorway in the middle of it. It is wide enough that the organ console is actually located on top of it! On the East side of the screen is the choir (“quire”), and on the West side is the nave, and the organist can look down, either way, and see what is happening on both sides of the building. Further to the East of the choir seating area is the High Altar of Canterbury, and then a set of steps going up to the ancient stone throne of St. Augustine (the Seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury), and still further to the East are two more chapels.

At great ceremonial services like today’s the preacher uses a pulpit in the middle of the choir area – which means that s/he cannot be seen by anyone in the Nave! (Another pulpit in the Nave cannot be seen by anyone in the choir!)

The acoustics, however, are excellent. Singing resounds without amplification, and the sound system for reading and speaking from lectern, pulpit and altar is excellent.

The sermon was exactly what you would expect on the weeds and wheat passage from Matthew’s Gospel, so I will not try to recount it.

This afternoon we had our first plenary session, and once again, the Archbishop spoke to us; very differently from the meditations in retreat. He outlined four possible futures for the Communion:

1) that we become a loose federation of churches, sharing a common heritage, but increasingly autonomous.

2) that we become a collection of even less connected national churches, each going its own way.

3) that we develop a strong centralized authority that will dictate uniformity in ethics and practice.

He rejected all of these as being “less than a Communion,” and put his hope in the fourth:

4) that we become a Communion of “counsel and consent,” held together by the bonds of affection and an Anglican Covenant.

There will be at least five opportunities during the next two weeks for us to consider the various sections of the proposed Covenant. These will be in “self select” optional sessions, alongside dozens of other options (everything from “Jews and Christians: Are we still getting it wrong?” to “Never Say ‘No’ to Media” to “Microfinance” to “Ethical Issues of Climate Change” to “The Response of Church Leaders to HIV Stigma and Discrimination” to “Towards Peace in Korea” – and those are just a few of the possibilities from the first two
days!)

It is, as I said earlier, only at the end of the Conference will the Covenant will be discussed in Plenary.

But for me, and for many of us, I think, the several sessions devoted to it over the next two weeks will be extremely important.

My sense is that the Archbishop totally underestimates how myopically focused the American House of Bishops is on “the full inclusion of LGBT persons” as a “Gospel imperative.” This is not just a significant PART of the Gospel for most of our Bishops; this IS the Gospel – it is THE great issue of our time: as abolition and civil rights and women’s rights were in their times.

I don’t think our House is prepared to be limited by counsel, consent, or Covenant.

But, to quote him again, “A failure in leadership is a failure to hope in Christ.”

So, we shall see what emerges in the next two weeks.

He spent a fair amount of time defending a very different approach in this Conference from that of any of its antecedents. In previous Conferences there have been heavy-duty scholarly papers produced and distributed for study beforehand, and the Conferences themselves have produced reports and resolutions- hundreds of them.

He commented wryly, that most of the resolutions have never been enforced. (He cited a request from the very first Lambeth Conference in 1867 that an international court be established to settle disputes of doctrine. We are still waiting.)

So, the next two weeks will consist of Bible Studies every morning in groups of eight (these have already been happening every day), and then the “Indaba” groups which will be composed of five Bible Study groups being joined together (in larger groups of 40), where we will talk about such things as “The Bishop and Anglican Identity,” “The Bishop and Evangelism,” “The Bishop and Social Justice, “The Bishop and…Other Churches…the Environment…Human Sexuality…etc.”

This is billed as “an opportunity for every voice to be heard.” How it will all be drawn together as an expression of the “Mind” of the Conference is quite unclear at this point.

And then, in the evenings, all that multiplicity of options I mentioned above.

So, I think we are at a hinge moment in the life of the Communion. No one knows where we will be two weeks from now, but I’m pretty sure that, like Star
Trek, we are headed to some place “where no one has gone before.” Your prayers continue to be much needed and very much appreciated.

Warmest regards to all of you,

–(The Right Rev.) John W. Howe is Bishop of Central Florida

Check out the resources here for one perspective from Western Canada.

This afternoon was a plenary session in the “big top” (a large blue tent used for plenary sessions). This marked a major shift in the life of the conference, moving from retreat and worship to the consultation for the Lambeth Conference.

In his address, the Archbishop of Canterbury talked about a renewed structure for the Lambeth Conference and the Anglican Communion. He said it was time for revival for the Anglican Communion, and we are handing ourselves over God for this process.

The only way forward is to focus on the mission in Christ, he said, and the only way we can do that is by listening to each other.

When he began his address, he was greeted with a standing ovation that expressed the fact as a result of the meditation and his leadership through the retreat and in the worship this morning, there is a trust and a respect for his spiritual leadership. He has earned the pastoral trust in the community of the bishops.

Read it all.

It is a long pdf file, but there is much material of interest.

Who cares if the Church of England tears itself apart this weekend? Its million active members in Britain are barely ahead of the Roman Catholics, from whose church it separated five centuries ago, and the 930,000 practising Muslims. Only 15% of babies are now baptised into the Church of England and few of them are likely to graduate to church membership.

Schism is the occupational disease of religion. If, through the defection of ecclesiastical conservatives, West Indians and Africans, there are soon to be two Anglican churches in place of one, most Britons will just not notice. But their established church remains a substantial national institution, custodian of British values even to the many who do not patronise it. When it suffers an attack of episcopal knife crime, a message goes out that “the centre cannot hold”.

The cause of the conflict, the gender and sexual orientation of bishops, is as arcane as the Pelagian heresy. It is sadly ironic that the church should be headed at this time by an archbishop, Rowan Williams, whose personality seems more ideally cast for martyrdom than leadership. His saintly pain at the refusal of the contending parties to hear his lofty platitudes has become a national agony.

Read it all.

I am very pleased with the design of the Lambeth Conference. Rather than talking about communion and community, the AbC has set about crafting an experience of community for the assembled bishops.

This actual experience may end up doing more to help the American bishops understand this challenge than any sermon or theological lecture ever could. Time will tell.

Please note: your feedback and thoughts always appreciated, and they will not be published with your name without your permission–KSH.

We are beginning to see the thrust of the controlling theology here at Lambeth.

First, all views should be represented. There is a continual knawing at the bone that over a quarter of the bishops invited are not here. This has been raised by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his welcome address, and Bishop de Chickera in the opening sermon. Archbishop Philip Aspinall commented on this at length in answer to a question at the opening press conference. His answer is illuminating.

He said in answer to a question: “I am greatly saddened by Archbishop Jensen’s decision not to come. Sydney comes from the evangelical tradition ”“ a vital part ”“ and that perspective will be weaker because they are not here. We will have to find other ways to engage that perspective. It will delay us. Other bishops have important things to say that they (the Sydney bishops) need to hear. There is sadness among us all.”

In other words, the liberal vision is to have all views expressed at a meeting. However, this will always be in the controlling framework of being on a journey and never being able to settle on an answer.

Read it all.

We want to hear your views on the future of the Anglican Church as the Lambeth Conference continues.

We are inviting two Have Your Say contributors from the Anglican Communion to the BBC to join the debate and respond to your views and questions….

How should the Church resolve its current difficulties? What are your views on the ordination of women and gay priests? Should the Anglican Communion split? What questions do you have for our guest contributors?

Check it out.

A liberal bishop from Sri Lanka suggested to his colleagues at the Lambeth Conference today that they should take the afternoon off to settle their theological differences over a game of cricket.

The sporting invitation from the Right Rev Duleep de Chickera, Bishop of Colombo, came in an otherwise hard-hitting sermon in which he reminded all 650 bishops attending that the Anglican Church was an “inclusive” community where everyone was equal, regardless of sexual orientation.

The sermon marked the official start of the conference in Canterbury and confirmed the Church’s liberal direction. But Bishop de Chickera – who was preaching at the personal invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams – freely admitted the “reality” of the current divisions over gay consecrations and same-sex blessings.

“The reality is that we are a wounded Anglican Communion,” he said. “Some of us are not here and that is an indication that all is not well.”

Read it all.

The meeting was designed without any votes or legislation, and no one expects the Anglicans to resolve their problems by the assembly’s end. Organizers instead hope their discussions will help clarify what direction they should take to stay together.

The Anglican spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, prefaced the gathering with a three-day private prayer retreat for the bishops that ended Saturday. In one session at the cathedral, he asked bishops to pray with someone they were afraid to meet.

“A Lambeth Conference is not a political meeting about organization or structure alone, but it is a spiritual meeting,” said Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, head of the Anglican Church of Australia. “We must go into this confident that a way has been found to the Father … . We must be confident that that way is there.”

Read it all.

The programme starts 23 minutes and 45 seconds in and includes interviews with Vincent Strudwick, Graham Kings, Norman Doe, Lucy Winkett, Judith Maltby, Paul Handley and Stephen Bates.

Please take the time to listen to it all.

He also challenged the church to be a “prophetic voice ”¦ regardless of where we serve in the world,” speaking for “those who for cultural, economic, military reasons cannot speak for themselves, or at tremendous cost.” He mentioned crises in Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq, and said the church must “call into accountability those who abuse power.”

The church, he said, “is one institution that does not live for itself” and he called upon the bishops to “hold onto these words” as the “crux of Anglican identity and spirituality.”
De Chickera concluded his sermon with a low, rhythmic Buddhist chant as the cathedral bells tolled.

After the service, Bishop Neil Alexander of Atlanta said he was “particularly moved” by de Chickera’s sermon since it “lifted your soul,” however, Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh said the inclusion of the chant was “very, very troubling” since it was an “invocation of something other than the God we know.”

Read it all.

(ACNS)

There are two realities that encompass us as we meet as a world family of the Anglican Communion. And I would like to draw your attention to both these realities, without which our conference and our forward journey will become meaningless.

The first is that our world is a torn and divided world. Bishops are expected to bring their dioceses with them to the Lambeth Conference, and Bishops whose dioceses strive to be faithful by the challenges that come to us from God’s world will inevitably bring along with their diocese the pain and the struggles, the injustice, the evil, the hostility that men and women encounter in today’s world. It is indeed a true saying that God gives the Church an agenda out of the crises of the world. And so my dear sisters and brothers in Christ, the Anglican Communion must always give the highest priority to our invitation from Christ to participate with Christ in transforming God’s world. To bring healing, peace, justice, reconciliation, abundant life, where there is oppression, where there is hostility, where there is strife, and division. This concept of the world in pain must, through this conference and after the conference, receive the energy and spirituality of our Church. No other priority can contend for that place. God has called us and placed us in God’s world so that we might participate with him in bringing this transformation.

The second reality is the reality that we are a wounded community. Some of us are not here, and that is an indication that all is not well. Certainly the crisis is complex. It is not a crisis that can be resolved instantly.

The journey ahead is a long arduous one – a journey that will demand our prayers, our faithfulness, our mutual trust in each other, and of course our trust in God who makes reconciliation possible.

Read it all.

But the organisation hasn’t been too terrible. There has been an enormous amount of good will, and I’ve really enjoyed working with such a wide range of people. I’ve travelled round the world talking to bishops and some spouses, and encountered a lot of good will there, too; so there’s that side of things, as well as delivering the Conference.

The sheer volume of minutiae has been overwhelming in recent weeks: tying up people’s travel arrangements and enquiries. Three-quarters of the people coming will never have been to a Lambeth Conference before. Still, we’ve had a great deal of fun along the way.

We didn’t know from the start what was happening about numbers and politics, but once Archbishop Rowan’s invitations had been sent out, and the replies started to come in, and we saw we had enough beds filled to make the Conference viable, we just tried to make the best Conference we could for the Archbishop. We could see from early on there was a huge take-up.

There is an irony, because I’m actually from the diocese of Sydney. The fact that my own bishops aren’t coming is a disappointment.

Read it all.

Read it all.

Watch it all.

…at this crucial time, many of those strong evangelical Anglicans from Africa, Asia and South America have removed themselves. The American bishops, led by Dr. Jefferts Schori, seem strengthened in their resolve to force the approval of aberrant behavior and experimental theology on the Communion. They’ve signaled a willingness to go their own way no matter what Lambeth does.

I talked with a number of bishops here. They are worried. Uncertain about the outcome of the Conference. I’m convinced that the majority of those here gathered are orthodox in their faith, determined to conform themselves to Scripture in a holy life. They must find within themselves, in the midst of this pilgrimage, the resolve to stand for the Faith and say “no” to innovations that have yet to be tested by time and have often proven so able to bring spiritual, emotional and physical suffering.

If they do not, a great cry of anguish will resonate in that great cloud of witnesses nurtured faithfully over the centuries and drawn from the battlefields of faith stretching from Canterbury to Mombassa. The anguish of betrayal. A weeping over souls now placed in peril by a Lambeth that could not find courage and lead.

An old and tired Anglicanism cannot be preserved here. But a renewed and reformed Anglicanism fit for twenty-first century mission could be reborn. Pray for the Church.

Read it all.

(ACNS)

This is my second Lambeth Conference and of course as the rest of my companion Bishops I arrive with a lot of expectations to take back to my diocese everything that we could share on these days during the conference and also to clarify all the misunderstanding that the people thinks is about the conference.

Yesterday when we left out and went into the city, a lot of people were asking me, with some malice, How is everything going in the Conference? How are you dealing with the sexual affairs? Because the people have not a clear idea of what is the Conference for.

The addresses and meditations from the Archbishop of Canterbury have been wonderful and the three days retreat was a wonderful idea because we have had reflection on what is our lead as bishops and I felt very touched because they are very profound

The retreat has been about our life as bishops: how we lead as bishops is a model for the entire church.

The archbishop’s address was profound and presented in a very accessible way. It was a sacramental encounter as Christ is revealed in our gathering. The archbishop’s material has been strategic, consistent and relevant to our development as bishops, and as new bishops, we are appreciative of his leadership.

The archbishop has paved the way for the Lambeth Conference, which was his intent. He prepared us for our work ahead. All the Bible studies will continue to keep us grounded in a worshipful place and in communion with one another.

Read it all.

Indeed, one of the most moving aspects of coordinating the worship for me has been receiving these images: the inspiring work of post-earthquake reconstruction in Pakistan, the relief effort following the cyclone in Burma, feeding stations for the poor in Burundi, the primate dancing the gospel in Brazil, an interfaith conference in Mauritius or a lunch club for the elderly in Hong Kong. Just to put a crude economic value – which would amount to billions – on this work is to realise that without such Christian witness societies all across the globe would simply grind to a halt. This is before we consider its psychological, social and spiritual significance, to name but three of the dimensions of human flourishing it encourages and enhances.

Of course the structural questions will persist. If you belong to an institution like a church with representative responsibilities and accountabilities you can’t – and mustn’t – avoid them. But let’s never forget their context is one in which foot-washing, literally life-giving service – the stuff of which real communion and communities is made – still transforms the world.

Read it all.

Things don’t look good. Fewer than a million people go to CofE services on a Sunday now. Broke and short of priests, it can barely provide pastoral care in every parish ”“ its main reason for claiming to be the national church. Other faiths are upset that so many bishops automatically get seats in the House of Lords, and that will change. The Queen’s successor will not be crowned Defender of the Faith; Charles will swear to defend faiths of all kinds. Up to 1,300 clergy might leave if women are allowed to become bishops; a similar number could walk if the CofE accepts openly gay, non-celibate priests. Attendances will go on falling. That won’t mean the end of Christianity here: there are many other kinds of church, some of which are huge and growing fast. And some have very strong views indeed. That’s one reason for even unbelievers to care. For a long time, our state church was known for prizing moderation, unity, compromise and sensible behaviour. Take that away ”“ either by one group taking over the CofE or it dying off completely ”“ and some fear the empty space will be filled by extremism. The character of England will change (if it hasn’t already). But there is another very big question to ask: who will look after the churches?

The church in England and the world could yet be reborn. Or the future could look like this. It’s 2018, and the next Lambeth Conference is held in the student union bar, attended by a dozen bishops and a cleaner. The CofE is a busted flush: a property empire worth £5.7bn in 2008 has been decimated by recession. Dissident congregations fight over who owns their churches. Is it the Crown? Is it the local parish? The legal answers are horrendously complicated, but neither can afford to pay for the upkeep of 16,200 buildings. Roofs are falling in. The Church of England is too small and too poor to go on caring for these crumbling treasures, as its members have done so patiently and sacrificially for years. You may not care about the collapse of the CofE. You may rejoice in England throwing off its state religion. But in this vision of 2018, the loss of ancient churches that are jewels of our architecture and heritage will feel like a catastrophe. And looking back, the beginning of the end will have been the summer of 2008, when that bunch of bolshy bishops spilled out of the church disco to start up their own, singing: “I am what I am…”

Read it all.

(ACNS)

We call ourselves “communion” that means we are deeply engaged with each other through the sense of solidarity and community. I am being deeply impressed by sharing our learning and experiences through the Bible study and the retreat. I hope that then we are seeking the common mission and discuss of our way of collaboration in this common mission. I expect to share my church’s missional vision on reconciliation and peace in the Korean context with other bishops from the world. We all have our own difficulties in mission, but we can help each other, and I believe that I will have a lot of help from my brother and sister churches. That is my expectation of the Lambeth Conference!

One of the highest ranking officials in the Vatican has warned that problems plaguing the Anglican Communion pose a ‘further and grave challenge for full and visible’ unity with Rome.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state and second in command at the Holy See, made the comments in a previously unpublished letter that was issued yesterday to delegates attending the Lambeth conference, a once-a-decade summit of the world’s Anglican bishops.

In the letter, which was largely supportive of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bertone said: ‘New issues that have arisen in our relationship pose a further and grave challenge for full and visible unity.’

Read it all.

The Anglican Communion is like a “slow moving train wreck”, according to a senior Church of England bishop who has given an extraordinary insight into the crisis that is engulfing the Church.

The Rt Rev Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham, has revealed that there is deep unease over the future of the communion and an atmosphere of mutual suspicion among bishops.

His comments come as about 650 bishops meet at the once-a-decade Lambeth conference in Canterbury, with continuing division over the issue of homosexuality.

Bishop Wright, a senior figure in the Church hierarchy, expressed concern that the summit was lacking direction and admitted that the Anglican Church was in a mess. “All sorts of forces have built up over the years in the communion through misunderstanding and people doing things differently without really consulting,” he said.

Read it all.

Check out the photo.