THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION is alive and vibrant.<\/p>\n
It has survived another Lambeth Conference, a bit bruised, battered and fragmented. Bishops at Canterbury rallied around pertinent issues of social justice, poverty and the environment, and they reached the only conclusion they could on human sexuality: compromise.<\/p>\n
That is what happens within a healthy family: members listen to each other, give a little, take a little, and reach a compromise. The result: both poles in the human sexuality debate are left frustrated and eager to battle another day, but it is the \u201cmiddle road\u201d\u009d \u201d\u201c via media — that has won the day.<\/p>\n
The Anglican Communion emerged \u201d\u201c as it always does after a Lambeth Conference — a church struggling to be faithful to scripture and relevant to today\u2019s society. Theologians and church leaders will debate the importance of Lambeth 2008 for some time to come; a sort of ecclesiastical navel-gazing. This issue of The Journal is dedicating an entire supplement to Lambeth.<\/p>\n