It could have been called the “Seinfeld Conference.” The once-a-decade gathering of Anglican bishops held this summer in Canterbury””the 2008 Lambeth Conference””was the conference about nothing.
Designed to avoid controversy, Lambeth 2008 set out to make no statements, take no stands, and avoid provoking new conflict within the Anglican Communion. By its own lights, the July 14 to August 3 meeting was a triumph for its organizer and host, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, for during those three weeks the oft foretold crack-up of the Anglican Communion did not happen.
Yet bishops from both the left and right branded the conference a failure. Lambeth 2008 was about nothing, said nothing, and achieved nothing, and by its inaction, the Anglican Communion was left in a worse place than if it had never taken place at all, Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda said.
Divided over issues of doctrine and discipline, with homosexuality garnering the most media attention, the bishops refrained from hurling anathemas at one another and in the end issued a paper expressing mild statements of concern on global warming, poverty, disease, hunger, domestic violence and other generally bad things””while also mildly affirming””in a non-provocative way””generally good things: peace on earth, the brotherhood of mankind, and church unity.
Rowan Williams subverted the primates meeting by killing the unanimously approved DeS. He has made a travesty of his own office with his ill timed and ill placed comments on Sharia and other tangentialities. The release of damning previous writings showing him to be hypocritical or lacking in integrity or both. (We should be able to expect that the leader of a church actually believe the teaching of the church, and he has stated that Lambeth 1.10 is the teaching of the church.) And now, in this article, George Conger well describes how Rowan reduced the Lambeth conference to a boondoggle, a sham and a travesty.
That leaves the only instrument of unity left standing to be the ACC. And the bureaucrats of that sad and impotent organization are no match for the problems faced by the Anglican Communion. Perhaps, this why Rowan hasn’t addressed the ACC.
That is impressive work – killing three of the four instruments of unity in time of crisis. What I find unfathomable is that the Covenant Design Group wants to reward him for his “good” work by making him even more the center of all things Anglican.
2, ditto.
But #1, his lack of leadership has created GAFCON.