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[Back to index of July 2008 articles] Anglican bishops will gather at Lambeth By The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane D.D.
Not long after you read this, Karen and I will leave for the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England. Lambeth is the once-a-decade gathering of bishops from around the Anglican Communion, who will come together on July 16 for three weeks, more than 800 strong, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury to meet, pray, study and act as a council of advice for Archbishop Rowan Williams, the titular head of the Communion. There will be many items on the agenda at the Lambeth Conference, but the greatest joy will be reconnecting with partners in mission from around the globe in fellowship and mutual support for the work, mission and ministry that we all share in Jesus Christ. Lambeth is not a juridical body, nor is it a legislative body. It is however one of the four instruments of unity that define and connect our Communion. Other instruments are the Anglican Consultative Council, the Primates Meeting, and the office of the Archbishop. The Archbishop has been clear about the agenda for this year’s gathering; preparing a program that will focus most of our time in relationship building, prayer, daily celebrations of the Holy Eucharist, scriptural study and developing ways to work cooperatively toward achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals. There also will be time spent studying the St. Andrew’s draft of the Anglican Covenant. I make the assumption that discussion and suggestions to this current draft will then be taken back to the various provinces of the Communion by their bishops for discussion leading to additions, subtractions and a sense of moving toward the acceptance or rejection of an Anglican Covenant. While I was in Spain last summer, meeting with more than 30 African bishops and primates and some 28 American bishops, several African bishops spoke out and said, “Had we such a gathering following the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire there would have been no need to craft the Windsor Report and the emerging Covenant.” Our experience in Spain was a powerful time of daily Bible study, prayer, dialogue, truth-telling and celebrations of the Holy Eucharist using the prayer books, languages and customs from all the provinces that gathered. Most, if not all, the bishops from the United States and Africa already had companion diocese relationships, and those relationships have done much to increase dialogue, familiarity and shared mission initiatives that have benefited all. One of the painful realities that have resulted from the planning of the 2008 Lambeth Conference is that Bishop Robinson has not been invited by the Archbishop to participate in the conference. This regrettable decision was reached after three American bishops, appointed by our Presiding Bishop and primate, the Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, were asked to negotiate with the Archbishop to find a way for him to be involved. Their hard work went for naught. I said at the House of Bishop’s meeting in March that the decision not to invite Robinson was not only painful and wrong but that it showed disrespect to every Episcopal bishop elected and consecrated to serve a particular diocese in our province. The fall-out from this poorly thought out decision is yet to be seen. Speaking to the House of Bishops at its spring meeting, Bishop Robinson called on every bishop in the Episcopal Church to attend the conference, rather than boycotting to demonstrate their solidarity with him. It is his hope and mine that the presence of American bishops at Lambeth will allow for further conversation and dialogue about the healthy role and significant contributions that our gay and lesbian clergy and bishops continue to make in the life, mission and ministry of Jesus Christ as we live it in the Episcopal Church. Instead of inviting Bishop Robinson as a participant and muting the controversy, the Archbishop of Canterbury has elevated the issue of his non-presence and the place of gay and lesbian persons in the church, both lay and ordained, to a place of higher visibility. This I am certain will lead to more exposure, discussion and dialogue about human sexuality in the church than could ever have been achieved, had Bishop Robinson been formally invited by the Archbishop. Unfortunately the objective of increasing the dialogue and conversation has come at the expense of Bishop Robinson’s participation. I ask you and your congregation keep the bishops of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion in your daily prayers, with the hope that we will spend the bulk of our time looking at and responding creatively to the issues of disease, poverty, illiteracy, state-sponsored war and violence, gender inequality and the Anglican partnerships necessary to confront such evils that continues to demean and destroy the children of God throughout the world. In Spain during one of our Bible studies, a wise and long-serving African bishop said; “We do not agree with you American bishops on issues of human sexuality in the Church, but we do recognize that there are significant cultural differences between our countries and yours that lead us to interpret Holy Scripture differently. We may not agree on the issue of human sexuality, but we must be respectful of each other's positions, claiming the higher ground to work together in Jesus’ name, making a difference in a world that is in dire need of healing from the crippling impact of disease, extreme poverty, hunger, war, indiscriminant violence, humiliation and a collective feeling of hopelessness.” As it was for us in Spain, may it also be so for us at Lambeth, 2008. [Back to index of July 2008 articles]
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