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[Back to index of March 2008 articles] Kearon Describes Plans for Lambeth Conference By Lucy Chumbley
During a Feb. 22 talk at Virginia Theological Seminary, the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, described plans for this year’s Lambeth Conference, where issues surrounding same sex relationships will once more be addressed. About 850 bishops are expected to attend the Lambeth Conference – one of the Anglican Communion’s four instruments of unity – and there has been a flurry of speculation about which bishops have not been invited and which do not plan to attend for political reasons. “The Lambeth Conference was born out of controversy, therefore throughout its history it has not been a stranger to controversy,” Kearon told a group of about 30 Episcopalians who had braved an ice storm to come and hear him speak. Bishop Gene Robinson, who in 2003 became the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, has not been invited, Kearon said, as he was consecrated against the advice of the Anglican Communion. “He is a duly elected and consecrated bishop in the Episcopal Church, no one is doubting that, but his ministry is not accepted in the Anglican Communion so he could not be invited based on that,” Kearon said. Likewise the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) bishops, who were consecrated in Nigeria as “missionary bishops” to the United States, have not received invitations. “CANA is not a recognized body of the Anglican Communion,” Kearon said. “There are resolutions dating back to 1888 that expressly forbid the setting up of bodies within existing dioceses.” It is possible, however, that Robinson will be invited to bear witness as part of the listening process set up by the 1998 Lambeth Conference, he added. Kearon stressed the importance of regularly consecrated bishops to the Anglican Communion, explaining that they are seen as guardians of the faith and symbols of unity. “A bishop represents the local church to the universal – and vice versa,” he said, explaining that these bonds between bishops are the foundation of the Anglican Communion. Liturgy is also of central importance to the Communion, he said, referring to the 2003 decision by a Canadian diocese to authorize rites for same sex blessings. “Liturgy is the way we express our teaching,” he said. “Liturgy is authorized by a bishop in a diocese. For a bishop to authorize liturgy that is not in compliance with the church catholic is to unilaterally try to change church teaching.” The Anglican Church’s formal position on gays and lesbians is expressed in 1998’s Lambeth Resolution 110, he said. This resolution “upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage.” It also states that all baptized, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ. “Statements from Primates Meetings and the Anglican Consultative Council have always affirmed the place of gays and lesbians in the life of the church,” Kearon said. “The issue is, what can the church bless – and that’s where we are now. In order for the Anglican Communion to change its position on these issues, they must be worked through the system properly, Kearon said. The process should begin at local synods and be taken up at conventions, he said, “then you begin to work it up through the church. Set up a commission, work it through…. If someone has a new idea for the way things should go, we should test it as a community of faith… We as a church should be very wary if people cannot express and test new issues in the life of the community.” Kearon responded to criticism about the way the Anglican Communion has handled these issues by pointing out that the Communion is one of the few bodies that is openly addressing them. He also noted that the Communion came under similar fire when it changed its position on contraception in the 1950s (after voting against it in the 1920s and 30s) and on the ordination of women in the 1970s. “If you were a politician, you would find [same sex issues] equally difficult to address,” he said. “Any group is going to find it difficult and in any group you are going to find strong feelings and prejudices on all sides. As a communion, we have got to narrow down on the particular issues to us as Christians in the Anglican Communion. “These issues that we’re facing are an issue of every church in the world, and we are the only ones that are facing it,” he said. “We’re getting a right hammering in the media about it… but if we do face it that can be a great gift to the rest of the world.” While same sex issues are causing friction across the Communion, Kearon said, he believes they are just the “presenting issue” – symptomatic of a wider division. The Anglican Church, which has its roots in the Church of England, essentially spread with the British Empire, he said, “on a really rather haphazard basis.” After the American Revolutionary War, the Episcopal Church in the United States “began to distance itself” from the Church of England, as it no longer fell under the sovereignty of the crown, and that rift, between the North American church and the church in the British colonies, has continued to widen. When the British Empire began to crumble in the 1950s and 60s, many colonial churches wanted to become national churches, and also loosened their links with the Church of England. “That does lead today to very different understandings of the church,” Kearon said. “As churches became autonomous, there became a need for different kinds of governance.” The instruments of unity – the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates Meeting – essentially provide this. “I think as the Communion has grown and become more diverse, those structures have become strained,” Kearon said. “I think there’s a need to look at the instruments of unity.” One attempt to address these divisions is the proposed Anglican Covenant, first suggested by the 2003 Windsor Report, a commission set up to study significant challenges in the Anglican Communion. This will be discussed at the Lambeth Conference, and will be taken up again in 2009 by the Anglican Consultative Council, Kearon said. [Back to index of March 2008 articles]
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