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Individual Bishops Express Their Perspective Going into the Lambeth Conference

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Kendall Harmon

Here is one:

Peter Beckwith, Episcopal Bishop of Springfield, Illinois

My hope is that those in attendance will recognise the seriousness of the crisis which has been allowed to envelop the Anglican Communion, and deal with the elephant dominating our living room. The Global Anglican Future conference has described the situation for most Anglicans worldwide and addressed it. What it has said, and with which I concur, is that faithful, orthodox Anglicans will not continue to abide any further the current agenda set by the Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Anglican Church of Canada and supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury through what many see as his acquiescence and benign leadership. I do not expect much to come of the conference. The process model appears very similar to what TEC’s House of Bishops has used for years which has fostered dysfunctional inefficiency, chaos, non-productivity and spiritual bankruptcy.

I believe if the first Lambeth conference had the same proposed agenda and process as projected for 2008, there very well might not have been a second Lambeth conference or even an Anglican Communion today.

Read it all.

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Lambeth 2008

4 comments on “Individual Bishops Express Their Perspective Going into the Lambeth Conference”

  1. Jeffersonian says:
    July 14, 2008 at 1:03 am

    Reading these short statements, one thing becomes clear: There are two distinct organizations at work here, with two very different agendas. One is worldly, the other spiritual. One recognizes the crisis, the other wants to pretend it doesn’t exist.

  2. driver8 says:
    July 15, 2008 at 7:56 am

    Many issues divide the Anglican Communion at the moment and we fully support the Archbishop of Canterbury as he works tirelessly to heal rifts. But there is one big issue that we should all unite behind — the safekeeping of the world’s environment. Jesus’s ministry was full of concern for God’s world for He proclaimed and embodied God’s love for it. The real challenges, therefore, are not about sexuality but about eradicating poverty, injustice, violence and tackling climate change. These are the fundamental issues of our age. If Christians are to be true to the gospel of Jesus, they ought to be devoting their energies to solving them. Let this be the Lambeth conference where Christians are called to demonstrate their commitment to global needs.

    Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt, Primate of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East

    What to make of this? It’s hard to believe it is written by the same man who spoke so clearly to the US HOB. It is simply coincidence that he downplays the division over sexuality and forefronts the very issues that TEC is promoting?

  3. Mike Watson says:
    July 15, 2008 at 9:12 am

    Driver8, I believe the name of the author precedes rather than follows the text. So the statement you quote is from Barry Morgan. Makes more sense, no? (A minor relief, but a relief nonetheless.)

  4. driver8 says:
    July 16, 2008 at 1:59 am

    #3 You’re right – I was misled by the page turn (so to say). Here is Mouneer Anis’ comment

    Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt, Primate of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East

    I hope that Lambeth will be a time of fellowship and a time of listening. But I am aware that this current crisis will, to some extent, hinder these wonderful goals. I have hoped we would deal with it before we came to Lambeth. It is not easy to enjoy an important event like this when the Anglican Communion suffers from significant division. The conference is not designed for taking decisions or making solutions. It is a time of fellowship. We had hoped it would be a place of decision-making because Lambeth is one of the instruments of unity and unless we are taking binding future resolutions, we will continue in a state of crisis. Having said all this, I believe that God is bigger than us, and He can do the impossible.