It could have been called the \u201cSeinfeld Conference.\u201d\u009d The once-a-decade gathering of Anglican bishops held this summer in Canterbury\u201d\u201dthe 2008 Lambeth Conference\u201d\u201dwas the conference about nothing.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u201d\u201dwhile also mildly affirming\u201d\u201din a non-provocative way\u201d\u201dgenerally good things: peace on earth, the brotherhood of mankind, and church unity.<\/p>\n