At the last Lambeth Conference, in 1998, the bishops overwhelmingly passed a resolution saying that homosexuality was “incompatible with Scripture,” and that homosexuals should not be ordained. The vote revealed the growing strength of the conservative bishops from Africa and the developing world.
To forestall conflict, the organizers of this year’s Lambeth Conference have planned for no resolutions, no proposals and no votes. Instead, the bishops will meet in small groups, on the theory that they will overcome their divisions by building personal relationships.
The Rev. Dr. Ian T. Douglas, a professor at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., who served on the design committee for Lambeth, said in a news conference last month, “It’s fundamentally about the encounter, about conversations among the leaders all oriented to: what is God calling the Anglican Communion and the bishops to be about in the wider world?”
Bishop Minns said of the Lambeth Conference, “It’s unfortunate, at a time the church needs clear and strong leadership, it gets two weeks of conversation.”
I was going to comment on the quote about; “encounter, conversations, and the wider world”, but I went back and re-read the article. Bishop Minns said it all. Short, sweet, and to the point…once again, thank you Bishop…..
Since this Lambeth Conference will be meeting in small groups over a two week period, it stands to reason that since The Episcopal Church will have at least one of their bishops in each group, they will attempt to either dominate these groups or steer them to TEC’s point of view. In other words, they’ll attempt to subvert them and influence them into going along with what TEC does.
‘Two weeks of conversation’? That really is misleading.
During the Lambeth Conference there will a preliminary retreat, led by Rowan Williams, daily bible studies, fellowship groups, major plenary sessions including one by Tom Wright, self select seminars, a group throughout the conference discussing the Anglican Covenant and another group considering the future shape of the Anglican Communion, the [url=http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2008/2/12/ACNS4370]Windsor Continuation Group[/url] (which includes John Chew, Primate of S E Asia and Donald Mtetemla, Primate of Tanzania – the latter is at GAFCON).
For a suggested ‘map’ of where we are at the moment and a proposal for the future, see [url=http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/page.cfm?ID=310]here[/url].
But #3, you see the real point to the remark, don’t you? Lambeth will be talk and more talk. Not all talk is chatter, to be sure, I don’t mean that. But from this talk no action arises, and men live for a certain kiind of action at last. Nor can there be leadership without action, without decisions, without standards which are actually upheld and enforced. Lambeth has been reduced to a debate about sex by eunuchs, if I may make that image. I fear that GAFCON is TOO African, but at least there will be a chance for decisions and for the development of leadership. There will be culturalclashes there, no doubt, but if consensus can be reached on matters of real consequence, then GAFCON will be a genuine success and Lambeth
a failure. Larry